Second interview is up at Charlotte Art. I spent some time with an illustrator who is crazy in the good way, Alex Lee.
Rewards of Life are Simple Things
Spending time with people and learning about them is really rewarding. A living story. One I want to help see a happy continuation of. The early reviews are positive and the community is really digging the effort so I’ll continue.
Gaining Efficiency
Now I only need to get my time per article lessened. I’m really done with general editing and writing fairly quickly. What is a huge time sink is the final touch, pulling it all together with technology.
Programs crash, or my computer is too slow (are they ever fast enough), or the editor in my head wants one more part snipped, clipped, rewoven, or did I mention the interoperability issues? Man they are the biggest pain. Little snafus in one app that don’t jive well with the next program.
Metropolitan Mixer
The metro mixer at Prevue was a blast. Regional vocalist Jocelyn Ellis, DJ Southpaw, artist Justin Abraham (he’s coming next to Charlotte Art), and the God City Artists did live and presented works.
Support people around you that try and rock, that’s the message of the day. I’m having a lot of fun doing what I can, what are you doing?
I’ve been an AT&T/Cingular customer for ages. When it was AT&T Wireless, when it was sold to Cingular, when Cingular was bought back into AT&T proper. I’ve really never had an issue with service or discussions with them. Until now.
While recently on Grand Cayman I was astounded to find that there was a Cingular tower on the island. I thought to myself this is wonderful that ATT / Cingular has made headway from the US Virgin Islands and I can use them here, right on! During my stay my iPhone was mostly on other peoples wireless network, but what little I did use to check my email, maybe a google map, and a few quick calls stateside ran me a bill along $480USD.
14 kilobytes of data. Roughly 4 emails worth of simple data ran about $35 USD a K. Highway robbery. The telco calls were cheaper by far. I could not believe my eyes.
I decided to dispute the charges because AT&T had not broadcasted on the network that there would be a rate hike, and that since service from the states to the island was so ubiquitous/seamless I felt that there was deception at play. If I got caught in this web, you know others will.
The rep and I had a long and pretty good call. We even figured out that the alpha tag of ‘Cingular’ was technically no longer in service and At&t should have been the only tags for me to see. This means that someone on or off the island is playing a real game of deception. The ticket was elevated and I waited a few days.
Today I got a call back from the rep saying that ATT passed down that the responsibility of the customer to know the difference in these matters is what is important and that I was basically being locked out of any disputes.
So attention consumers, the wireless networks don’t care if you are conned while away from home. It’s your responsibility to know that there is a con and to not fall in to it. If you do find yourself conned they will not care, and you will be stuck with a disproportional bill that can not be disputed or reduced. With today’s locked in contracts you’re pretty much as screwed as you can be. Be very wary.
I also learned a little anecdotal story that there are international carrier barges that float around the gulf hoping to grab land cell users in their roaming web. I find it astonishing that they are not going after these and other guileless plans to take your and my money.
I feel like this is a pretty cut and dry case of international fraud and while I can’t seem to be able to do anything about it maybe you can protect yourself from such damages.
It’s been a full day for Robin and myself. A bunch of photography friends were heading to Asheville for some lessons, others were following along to take pictures on the town. I wanted to do something more normal. What’s more normal and low-key than visiting friends and skydiving? hah!
We woke early and bolted across the South Carolina border ready to see some good friends we don’t see enough of currently at Cupps Cafe. You can’t beat their cinnamon rolls and scones for a perfect way to start the day.
Hanging out till lunch time we grabbed a couple of “Mother Cluckers” and bolted to the dropzone down the street at Skydive Carolina to get some well needed therapy.
I’ve been grounded because of travel time, reserve repacks, and good ol’Winter Mother Nature. The skies just haven’t been friendly (and during February their not supposed to be) until today. With the temps in the 60s and a wind holding at about 15mph I got aloft and cruised around the skies in torpedo like fashion.
Gene repacked my reserve a few weeks ago and I had him flake my main. He used it to show students what a long term pack job does as mine came out in a pretty good square. It would have deployed, just sniveled a lot. No worries!
Today’s ride was great. Soft opening into a light right turn. I hung around the tandems then found a holding pattern until 1k where upon I entered the landing pattern.
Having a steady wind brought me nearly straight down and a perfect soft landing awaited me. What a purification process for the mind. Like a friend said, ‘You look blissed’, and I felt it.
We ended the day by coming back into Cupps for a dinner round where we drank a fantastic crisp sweet Riesling, ‘Clean Slate’, while working on the text for an upcoming Charlotte Art. Migrating over time into nachos and some delicious white-bean pork soup. Man this place rocks.
