Jiggyboo

I am going to relate to you a somewhat funny series of events which I was privileged enough to be involved in last night.

The start of the night saw myself driving to Marcus Parmenters house located in Provo. From there, we went to Applebee’s, had dined on the finest Applebee’s has to offer (which was gross and i was very unsatisfied). The plan at that point was to go up to Riley Malcovich’ house (i am not sure I spelled his name correctly). There we planned to create some video footage for a Ponder Live! for Ponderplace.com.

But we decided to drop by Marcus’ house again to pick up his laptop. Just as a backup plan for boredom, and also in case I filled my camera’s memory card, we could offload the video and continue filming.

While on the way to Marcus’ house, Marcus received a telephone call. I later found out that the call came from a certain Bubba Mills (queue ominous music). Bubba had just finished an extended day of working at Zions bank, and found his cars ignition was not turning. Marcus agreed to stop by (I wasn’t asked, but if I had been asked I would have given my blessing on the matter). We get there, Marcus jumps in Bubba’s car and finds everything Bubba has been saying to be true. Is car just wouldn’t start.

Twenty minutes later it was concluded that the best course of action that that point would be to get a spare key located at Bubba’s house, which was in Springville, UT. We were in Provo, UT located around 300 N and University, so it was not a far drive.

On the way to Bubba’s house we talked about various things, none of which where significant to remain in my memory. Once we were in Springville we began making our way down the various streets leading to Bubba’s house. The final street was one which sloped down to a T, each side of the T being a Cul-de-sac. Which essentially means Bubba’s street was the only way out of this particular neighborhood.

As we approached this slope Marcus (being the driver) inquires to Bubba as to the feasibility of getting back up this slope. Which due to the recent weather had a thin (1 inch) layer of snow covering. Bubba quelled any fears stating that he frequently was able to get up the hill, and had never experienced difficulty.

Comforted by this explanation, we made our way down to Bubba’s house and park on the street. I don’t remember why, but we all went inside the house. Bubba retrieved the keys, and we left.

We were once again in the car, and turning around to go back up the hill and on our merry way. However it was quickly made apparent that this was not as simple a task as we had hoped. In the first attempt we were able to make it ten or fifteen feet up the hill.

After a few runs, Bubba and myself got out and pushed the car. The slope was surprising difficult, and we had a hard time keeping on our feet, while also pushing the car up the hill. I found that if I planted my feet and carefully alternated pushing and switching feet I could maintain a pretty decent effort toward our end goal.

We made it up about 70% of the hill when Marcus decided to make another run from the bottom. I cant say I was fully for the idea, but I also did not veto the idea entirely. In hind site, vetoing would have been the appropriate course of action.

Once we made our way back to the bottom of the hill, we had even more trouble getting even half way as far as our previous best attempt achieved. This was very frustrating, not to mention, but was balls cold. I was very lucky to have my sweatshirt, a scarf, as well as my Dad’s heavy winter coat. I still was slightly cold, but had I not had this apparel, being as sick as I was/am, my situation would definitely not be looking pretty today.

Back to the story.

We spent the next half hour making the same attempts as usual. We alternated the style of approach slightly, but there are only so many different ways you can approach going up a hill. Mainly there were 3, try driving (fail), try pushing (mostly failed), try sitting on the hood of the car, thus adding more weight to the front tires (fail).

Ironically, in the beginning of all this, while we were stuck on the hill, we had not one, but two neighbors drive up, and around us on the hill. It was weird that what we struggled so much with was somewhat easy for them to do in their beater family cars. I’d guess the fact that they had automatic transmissions and probably snow tires helped the most. We were sporting a manual transmission and low profile “street” tires.

We were pretty much done trying, and though we had failed, we didn’t see how else we could get out of there; but one of the two who had passed us earlier (and had since returned somewhere in the middle of our plight) returned with a large bag of salt and offered to help.

We then used the two-people-pushing method, with our new friend pouring the salt down in front of one of the tires. We were now able to inch our way up the hill. We made it probably 80% of the way before the salt ran out. At which point our friend came back and assisted in pushing. And yes, we did make it to the top of the hill.

We were very grateful for this persons help, and Marcus wanted to give his car a break. The smell of burning rubber (which I was unable to detect due to my cold/runny nose) was convincing. We walked back to Bubba’s house, and on the way, a group of people in a sissy Toyota mini car made an attempt at the hill. They definitely were not making it, but we then pushed them up to the top. In exactly the same way we had pushed Marcus’ car up; a few inches at a time (actually it was not as slow this time). They got to the top, said thanks, and we once again headed for Bubba’s house.

Arriving there we found the warmth of his home welcoming. However, due to the physical exertion, we were quick to shed our winter garb. I was probably more a fan of this than they were, the scarf had built up a considerable amount of heat around my neck. However, the zipper of my Dad’s coat was stuck. I couldn’t slip out of it, because my head is kind of fat, and the coat was stuck right up near the neck.

I pulled on it, Marcus made fun of me, and then he made an attempt to unzip it. Bubba might have tried it, but I think he mainly assisted in holding the upper flaps of the coat while Marcus or I took turns trying to unzip the coat. I checked several times inside to be sure fabric was not caught in the zipping mechanism, granted it was not thorough but I felt there was no blockage there.

5 minutes later (which seemed longer because it was really really hot for me) Marcus finally got it, apparently a tiny bit of fabric was caught in the zipper.

We then spent 40 minutes watching a 25 minute episode of The Office. It was very funny, but it paused every few seconds, which made not only watching it difficult, but the rhythm of the humor was also interrupted.

That was pretty much the entertaining part of the night. We eventually went back to Bubba’s car, which started on the first try with one of the two spare keys Bubba brought. Marcus and I then went to Malco’s and spent a few hours there.

Overall it was a fun night. I’ll probably remember it more vividly now given our experience.

Well well, the new year is quickly approaching. I’ve been quite in this part of the interwebs (ie this site). Partly because i’ve been burnt out lately, and partly because I didn’t write anything and then “post” it (some could argue thats the whole issue). Whatever, what do they know.

Anyway, i’ll be leaving for Utah in two short days. I’m somewhat concerned because just tonight my throat became sore. And that is not something i want to be dealing with on vacation. It could be that I was up until 3am last night (friday night). Or it could be that i didn’t eat well today (chips and salsa for lunch/dinner). Either way, i hope its temporary.

I ran out of business cards for Pebkac Consulting. You’d think that would be good because i’m getting them out. But somehow it doesn’t feel that way. Whatever, i’m ordering more, and the new ones will feature a few tweaks. Kind of scary because these are not Whiney Jensen sanctioned changes. So who knows whether they’ll be good.

I’m really tired right now. I don’t know why I came home and sat on the computer. I was tired when i got home. Its habit.

I’m going to bed now.

Today I woke up at 4:00 a.m.. I found myself unable to sleep and finally got out of bed at 4:30 a.m..

Over the last while I’ve been searching for a trouble ticket system. I’ve wanted a system which would allow customers to submit problems, and me to manage solving those problems. I’ve spent quite a while researching different options. My conclusion is that there are far too many options available. And that none of these options seem to suite my needs. Granted, it is 90% likely that many of the systems i reviewed are capable of what i want. But they all seem to do so in a convoluted or complex way.

My solution? Make another one!

There are already a million options, one more isn’t going to hurt right?

After some contemplation I concluded that there are actually three systems I’ll be building. The Customer Management system, the Ticket Management system, and the Invoice Management system.

My overall philosophy for each is to keep it simple. I’m doing this because each of the other systems I reviewed were juggernauts. And when it really comes down to it, if you find your incident management system too convoluted, it usually means your support structure or work flow is setup incorrectly.

The other reason I’m keeping it simple is because I have no education and very very little experience in the systems I plan to use to build this.

Wish me luck.

ps. Even though i’m “keeping it simple”, my mind bends at trying to comprehend everything I’m trying to implement. This either means I’m somewhat limited in my mental capacities, or the system I’m setting up is still very complex … or i’m trying to think in ways I’ve never tried before, and my mind needs time to adapt. Lets hope its the last one.

Some time ago I was looking for a way to remove my credit card debt. I found that my interest payments on the offending card were roughly $70 a month. Which is totally uncool, thats almost enough rent for a closet or something.

Anyway so I did a balance transfer to this Chase credit card, which had the benefit of 0% interest. This was going to last 14 months, and in that time I’d have the credit card payed off. Lo and behold somewhere down the line i made a mistake and didn’t pay the monthly minimum on time.

Unknown to me at the time, somewhere in the .00083 sized font they use in the contract, this is grounds for cancellation of the 0% interest rate, and bumped me up to 9.9%. Which isn’t horrible, but it isn’t a birthday wish either.

So today I am projecting on how to pay this card off. And I’m wondering what interest rate will be applied to any balance which goes unpaid. Its quite possible (in my mind) that they apply some ridiculous 29.83838% interest rate to the unpaid balance at the end of this 0% interest period.

I decide to call Chase just to be sure. While on the phone, the guy noted that the account was no longer on the 0% interest rate. This was due to a late payment in July of 2007. Which means that for the last several months I’ve been paying interest as usual.

This is really uncool, i felt betrayed. Like a child left at the Day Care center without his pacifier; or a mother to pick him up at the end of the day.

Tragic.

Meanwhile, the guy said i qualified for the 1-time “courtesy” something or other which means they reapply that 0% interest rate.

Now, yes it was through my own actions that removed the 0% financing. However, it is not something they tell you up front (or at least i don’t remember them telling me). Which simply means its a cheap business tactic, they now have 3-4 months of interest charges. Then they innocently claim a “courtesy” something or other and switch it back. This is a win win for them. Not only do they have 3-4 months of interest. But they also remove my anger by playing the “saint” in the situation and giving me the 0% rate again.

Dirty dirty hookers.

Meanwhile the interest rate is not that bad at 9.9%. I am now on the phone with my other credit card and much to my dismay i found that my current card is at an interest rate of 19.9%. Suddenly my lack of attention to my finances seems to be a bad choice…

Anyway, through a mind-bending plan of weirdness, I’m going to transfer my credit into a bank account, which will then go into paying my debt on the card, so that i can move it over to a new card … basically getting debt to pay debt. Its all in the name of a lower interest rate.

After the switch I’ll then be on a 1.99% interest rate for 12 months, at which point it will switch to a 11.99% rate … not super fantastic, but definately better than 19.9%.

*update (at a much later date - 2008.05.22 to be exact): I just thought I’d drop a note here. And i probably posted a comment about this but I don’t know where it is. Anyway, so that whole weirdness of transferring that i was going to do on my 19% credit card didn’t pan out. Apparently the person who helped me come up with that plan didn’t fully understand what they were doing. Or they did, and the second person I talked to is a total jerk. I’ll never know.

Hey everyone,

Index:
Fixed the Ponder Line submittal form.
Wrapping up the story
General notes

You may have noticed that the Ponder Line feature is back online. Silly little problem can have such major consequences. Get back in line and submit some requests.

You may have noticed a story-like series of Meanderments titled “A Speculation On The Premise Of Your Demise”. This is an experiment; let me know what you think of it. I’ll probably be wrapping it up in the next post, for a total of 5 parts.

I’ve been feeling badly about ponderplace.com lately; my lack of energy and time [for writing] is showing in the not-that-great content. This is all due to my busy life, which is filled with a full time job, as well as my efforts to start a technical support business, and run ponderplace.com.

Shameless plug, but if you know someone who needs a computer built, repaired, or needs technical training; I could use the business.

Plus its a good cause, because as soon as I can afford to quit my day job, it will allow me the time I want to devote to ponderplace.com. Which means ponderplace.com will be better…er.

The website has some kinks to work out, but its www.pebkacconsulting.com. They can also call me Toll Free at 866-902-4768. And don’t think that you have to be in Arizona for my services, i focus on remote support. Which means I can fix any computer with a working internet connection.

Much love, the future is looking bright, we just need to get through this growing period. I hope to have the ponderplace.com clothing line started sometime in 2008, but it all depends on how quickly I can turn Pebkac Consulting into the beast I envision.

-Stephen
www.ponderplace.com

ps. I’ll also be posting this in my blog.

Crap, so you know how life is constantly plodding along. Then you are like in it (life) and doing your thing. And sometimes in the process of doing your thing, you end up doing your thing so much that your thing becomes this exercise of autopilotness and your often daydreaming or otherwise occupying your mind with other matters as your hands and in some cases lips are going through the motions. Saying yes when appropriate, no when also appropriate.

Well, it is such autopilotness that I’d like to speak of. See, today I spent pretty much the entire day working on computers. Which is great because a portion of that work was performed under the banner of Pebkac Consulting. Which means it will go toward the bread and butter of my life (credit cards in this case). Meanwhile, I was also doing some other work on a computer. This computer is a friends laptop (Mat Black (Mat Curtis) just for posterity sake). We are reformatting it and whatnot.

In order to do this we gathered his data into a directory, and copied it all over onto my external USB hard drive. With this we were ready to reformat his computer. Keep in mind, throughout this I was switching inbetween computers, also reformatting and setting up this other computer.

Meanwhile his laptop was giving me issues with reformatting and installing windows. I wasn’t sure what was happening because I’d start it, then go to the other computer, and when I returned something screwy had happened.

I still don’t have a clear understanding of the proceedings of my night. But the end result is that somewhere along the way, in my many attempts and variances in reformatting my friends hard drive, I inadvertently reformatted my external USB hard drive, and installed windows on it.

Let me explain why this is pretty much the worse thing ever. Aside from Genocide and other bodily harms, et cetera.

Due to my precarious data situation (my two 250gig HD’s crapped out on me and I unplugged them and cannot use them for fear of the hard drives dying) I’ve been using my external hard drive (which is only a 120 gig) as a temporary storage for stuff I need to backup. Stuff I need to keep.

It has been so long since I put my stuff on there that I cannot remember what exactly was there. But I do know that when I put the stuff on there, I thought to myself, this hard drive really needs to last until I get a new drive for everything, because there is some pretty important stuff on there.

Well, not only was there my important stuff on there. But We had just moved ALL of Mat’s stuff over to this hard drive. This includes all the pictures he has ever taken. All the song lyrics he has written (a great amount). Those being the greatest/irreplaceable loss items, there was other various stuff.

Not only did I feel like an idiot for formatting my external hard drive. But my emotional range was inadequate to handle the abundant variety of emotions this brought, and I was left there with a dull buzz in my head. No response, I was not angry, I was not mad, I was not discouraged … I said I was depressed but I didn’t really feel that either. The events which i’d just caused were far beyond my physical bodies capability of expressing.

I didn’t do anything irrational. If I were to make lemonade with these lemons. I’d say this is a great opportunity for me to test my data recovery skills. You know, see if I really have what it takes to be a technical support supportist.

At this point we have no idea whether or not I’m any good. Obviously the very fact that I triggered this whole catastrophic event would suggest that I’m not, but lets not go there.

As I am now writing these very words (which words were “As I am now writing these very words”) my attempt to recover all our lost data remains at about 70% complete (and its now 3:48 a.m.). I still do not know whether or not I’ll see the files we are now missing once this process completes. But I am crossing my fingers (making typing this very difficult), my legs, and my eyes (again, making writing difficult).

I am oddly calm. I think it is one of those things that once you have experienced it, the next time it happens you just know that its either going to work or not. Thrashing around, being angry, [fill in the blank] wont do anything to help the situation. So if I find that I have not only destroyed a portion of my digital world. But much worse, I’ve completely wiped out everything, 100% of my friends digital world. Its alot easier to feel better when you’ve disappointed yourself, but its much more difficult when its someone else.

I’m going to go to bed now. Even though the laptop’s fan is blowing full bore. I think I’m tired enough that I’ll be able to set aside my usual extreme disdain of odd noises, and fall into sleep. When I awake; I’ll review the damage, and provide a report to my compadre.

I’ll be sure to let you know too.

*Update 2007.12.02 @ 10:41 am: The results of the recovery effort? We have 48.6gb of the original 100gb of data. The bad thing about this is that its we now have 34,648 files in one directory name “cluster xxxx” (the xxxx being which cluster number it is). Even further, the problem is that each cluster is not a whole file, so one of those jpegs may only be 10% of the actual jpg file. I’m not sure how to go about stitching them all together.