Friday, March 31, 2006

An old friend

Yesterday, I went to the pub for wing night with some friends. Surprisingly, an old friend showed up that I had not seen in 3 or 4 years. He just came back from working abroad. We caravaned together to Burning Man in 2002 (photos by Jon Ross) for the Floating World. That year had a great theme--beautiful art, vehicles and people. First year I had a kitchen. The year I met Camp Stimulation.

The Funshiners camped next to us and spun records the whole time. At the end of the week, a neighbour with a megaphone came over and gave thanks to the DJs.

I remember drinking rocket fuel (gatorade and vodka) at Damnsterdamn. Then I danced (lap) a Jewish Santa in the window. Rode the Totoro Cat Bus late at night around the city. During the week, I saw a beautiful sunset after a storm (scroll down on linked page).

That year, I saw my first temple burn: the (Temple of Joy). The temple burn was awe-inspiring. Everyone was quiet. Not a sound except for a beautiful voice singing Ave Maria. (Sadly, last year's temple burn was filled with various, annoying background noises.) In 2002, all one could hear was the sounds of the crackling fire, tears, sobs, and people yelling out I-love-yous, and I miss you, and Thank-yous. So moving. I burned some old items for my grieving process.

That year was a tormenting year for me. I had a lot of internal things I was dealing with that year. Grieving is a slow process. The burns I have attended have helped me grow, mature, learn and evolve. I am grateful to my burn experiences and all the people I have met. Those friendships and experiences bring joy and fondness to my life. However, in 2003, I skipped the burn and headed off to Australia by myself. First trip abroad. Glad to touch base with a friend who was passing through on his trip around the world. The solitude and adventure helped bring me back up to speed.

Anyways, it was great to see an old friend again and catch up. Helps you relive and remember the great memories of the past, and remember how you survived the difficult and painful ones.

Thursday, March 30, 2006

PayPal service stinks

So, I have been trying to buy a won item on eBay for over a week now. I have used PayPal a few times in the past without any difficulties.

Recently, I logged into my PayPal account and tried to enter in my payment five times. The page continuely refreshed and kept telling me to add my Payment now. I finally emailed Technical Support (in utter fustration after scanning the FAQs) and talked to three different people at PayPal.

One support person told me I needed to be " Canadian-Verified ". I asked him if Americans needed to be " American-Verified ". They wanted me to fax a copy of my credit card statement and driver's license.

After being a victim of debit fraud (yes, I never thought it would happen to me...), I am hesitant to fax hard copies of my personal information to a company in another country.

Why didn't the PayPal Payment area tell me there was a problem with my account? Why wasn't there anything in the FAQs? Apparently, my credit card numbers were blocked because they were already in on my file. Well, duh, they are expired. I had to re-enter them with new expiration dates. I think I'm done with PayPal.

I just want to pay for my $5.00 used board game! I think I'm going to give up and only pay for cheap eBay items by cheque. If the seller refuses, well I guess I can no longer bid on auctions.

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Hell has frozen over...

I finally did it, I joined a blog cult. I was always against it. I avoided LJ at all costs. I had a blog a few years ago on a friend's server, but it crashed and I lost everything.

I kept meaning to ask that friend to design another one for me in MT or PHP. I just never got around to it. Too lazy to learn to code it myself. Everything has to be so specific... so perfect.

Well, I figured since I joined flickr.com, I might as well oursource the blog part too. Makes sense. Hey, it's free. Why not give it a whirl?