January, 5, 2006 archives

On December 31, I placed an order for a phone (order number removed).

On January 2, I was contacted by one of your representatives, told there had been a problem with my order, and provided my details to place a new order (order number removed).

On January 4, both phones arrived.

Today I called to find out what I should do to return the second phone, sent due to your mistake, and was told I would be responsible for paying shipping to return the phone to you (rma number removed).

I do not find this acceptable. What can you do to rectify this problem?

Thanks.

Jim

the response:

I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. Since there was an error in our system, we sent you the phone you ordered and another one for free! If you wanted to return this free gift from us to you, we ask that you contact a live advisor at the number provided below to set up the return. Unfortunately, we do ask that you pay for the shipping of an unwanted phone. What I would suggest doing is giving the phone to a friend and getting our Kickback bonus. This is a $20 bonus we give to you for referring a friend to our company.

so, anyone want a free virgin mobile usa phone?

i had sort of decided to give doing a year-end music review a pass, but i was inspired by mike’s (of franklin avenue) mix of his favorite tracks of the year to do the same. as with his mix, it’s not just music released in 2005, but music new to me in 2005.

1. “hip hopera” from the broken record by twink: every mix needs something interesting to kick it off, and this little song is mixed together from some old children’s records
2. “aqui” from mtv unplugged: la ley by la ley: i suppose i should look up a translation of the lyrics some day, but this song even works without knowing that.
3. “things the grandchildren should know” from blinking lights and other revelations by eels: i’ve been an eels fan for a long time, and i really liked the lyrics to this song.
4. “put it back together” from palookaville by fatboy slim: again, i’ve been a fatboy slim fan for a long time. this is my favorite from his latest album.
5. “in the wee small hours” from astrud gilberto’s finest hour by astrud gilberto: obviously not a new release, but one of my favorite from this greatest hits album.
6. “a change at christmas (say it isn’t so)” from ego tripping at the gates of hell by the flaming lips: not really the flaming lips song i wanted to include (that would be “fight test” from yoshimi battles the hip-hop robots), but this is also an excellent song that actually stands alone.
7. “sleepwalking through the mekong” from dengue fever - ep by dengue fever: “a cambodian pop rock psychedelic dance party” with lyrics in khmer — you have to love it.
8. “tired of being alone” from al green: greatest hits by al green: uh, yeah.
9. “in my life” from kawaipunahele by keali'i reichel: also mike’s fault, and one of those beatles covers i am way too fond of.
10. “the vicodin song” from terra naomi ep by terra naomi: my favorite song by my favorite local musician.
11. “close to my girl” from from detroit to j.a. by the kleptones: i love all of the kleptones mashups, and this is one of my favorite tracks from the latest.
12. “goodnight and go” from speak for yourself by imogen heap: yes, it’s an overlap with mike’s mix. but this really is the best song from a fantastic album.
13. “hotel california (spanish mix)” from ¡volare! - the very best of the gypsy kings by the gypsy kings: a muy bueno version of a classic california song.
14. “groovallegiance” from one nation under a groove by funkadelic: george clinton and his bands is something that has always been over the horizon of my awareness, and i was just blown away by this album (and this song) when i finally picked it up.
15. “dark as a dungeon” from will the circle be unbroken by the nitty gritty dirt band: i wanted some country music, and liked the idea of this meeting of a bunch of dirty hippies from california and some classic nashville musicians — and was not disappointed at all.
16. “everybody loves a loser” from the antidote by morcheeba: i haven’t been a morcheeba fan for that long, but i really like this new album, and this song in particular.
17. “let it be” from beatles regrooved by eros: like i said, i am way too fond of beatles covers. i know i shouldn’t like this one as much as i do, but i do.
18. “humboldt” from grapevine by i see hawks in l.a.: my favorite song by my favorite local band.
19. “revolverlution” from from detroit to j.a. by the kleptones: yes, another mashup from the kleptones makes them the only repeat artist. this mashes together a spoken word piece with some perfectly-matched music, and i think makes a great closer to a mix.

total running time: 1:19:40

if you want a copy of the mix, let me know. no fancy cover for me, and i guess i may only be able to burn seven copies due to the couple of tracks that are fairplay-protected. (unless i deal with stripping that.)

i’ll be giving a talk about the latest mysql features at the southern california linux expo next month (out near lax), and then giving at least one talk (on embedded mysql) at the mysql users conference 2006 in april up in the bay area.

early admission for both conferences is still available. scale4x is $50 until january 16 (or less if you get your hands on a promotional code), the mysql users conference is $945 until march 6 (with various discounts available, like the 15% o’reilly conference alumni discount).

i’ve been poking around in the historical archives (pre-1985) of the los angeles times. here’s an interesting factoid: “los angeles was the first city in the united states to entirely abandon gas for street lighting and replace it by electricity, which was done january 1, 1888.”

and here’s a great blurb from the august 10, 1886 “briefs” column: “officer fonck brought in a man, last night, from los angeles street, who was dead drunk, and so filthy that it caused the officer to lose his four-bit dinner.”

one of the reasons i’ve been digging around is that in this obituary for james pulliam, i noticed that the writer claimed there was some renovation of the central library that was completed in 1987. i thought this was obviously wrong, because the two fires in the central library were in 1986, and the renovation of the library was not completed until 1993. looking at the articles where pulliam is quoted in 1979, they are about a renovation project that was never done. charles luckman, another los angeles architect, had proposed a renovation that would have added two new wings to the library, and had elevators in the central rotunda. the city council killed that plan in september 1979, and plans for the renovation that did happen did not start to gel until a few years later.

the person with the times who first responded to my correction appears to be on vacation for a few days, so maybe they’ll correct the obituary after my latest volley. (or not, and in the grand scheme of things, it’s not a very big deal.)

this piece in the new york times looks at how people appear on the news are getting out their side of the story, and one thing it astutely points out is that an advantage that organizations like the discovery institute or people like me have is that our content doesn’t disappear inside a pay-for-access archive after a few weeks. for the foreseeable future, you’ll be able to come back to this entry to see what i’ve said. this article is something i linked to in the los angeles times almost five years ago (here). the link doesn’t even offer to sell me the article, it just wants me to contact their archive department who may or may not be able to figure out what the article actually was. as a counter-example, here’s a new york times article where i’m offered an archive copy of the article. and here’s an even older one that is still freely available.

at the japanese-american national museum in little tokyo, there is oshogatsu: new year family day festival on sunday, and it is also when the big drum: taiko in the united states exhibit closes. there’s also a concert on saturday night. i’ve been meaning to head over there for a while, i guess i’ll have to make sure to do so this weekend.

whale watching. (via blogging.la)

the lights for whatever shoot is happening down on fourth street also lit up the foreground buildings for a shot of the skyline, which i thought was sort of interesting. the pictures aren’t as good as the view, though.

but i have suffered for my art, sort of — my phone rang when i was taking pictures, and when i got up to get it, i smashed my nose on a table. and then got promptly hung up on when i answered. kicked when i’m down.