Looping the Hen

Ebay...

Raised their prices again this year, as well as two or three times last year if I remember correctly. Between Paypal and Ebay, total fees for low to mid-priced auctions (under $50) end up being 10-15% of the sale price. Considering Ebay owns both services, that almost feels like they get me coming and going. Google is setting themselves up to compete with Ebay late this year or early next (I hope, but it looks like); if they offer more competetive pricing, they will easily pull folks from Ebay, as many are upset with the constant string of rising fees.

One of Ebay's redeeming values is the 10 cent listing sales they run every 8-10 weeks or so. Around the first of the year I started gathering a crate of stuff together in anticipation of their next listing sale; they only give a few hours notice, but I was prepared when the email came last night, and I've just finished putting up near $600 worth of stuff, mainly Magic the Gathering cards this time, and a couple of games. Once I get through these I will start filling up the crate again.

This should put enough in my Paypal account to buy a new PC with no money out of pocket. I've been looking at returned/refurbished Dell XPS 400's; a good one with a dual core 3.2mhz processor, 1-2gb memory and 256mb vid card is around $850-$950, depending on the promotion of the day. It's not as scary as it sounds; I bought the PC I am using now the same way in April of 2003. It is almost 3 years old and I have never had problem 1 with it. I know people who spend $2000 on every new PC; I buy one about as often for around 60% less, and they last me 99% as long.

Whee, just had my first sale come through from a listing, a Pernicious Deed for Magic the Gathering.

Yuck, more goals!

So far so good; I managed to get through the worst part of the winter in reasonable shape, so it's time to figure out my goals for the next several months. It's horrible, but I think the one day of kick-boxing actually helped; I benched reps at 170 when I normally do them at 153 or so. If it helps my running times as much, I'll definitely have to keep doing it. Blech.

Anyhow, my next stepping stone back to decent times is 24:48, 8:00 minute pace. I don't know why it is, but to me that is the threshold of casual running and competitive. No, it is not 'competitive' per se, but most people over 30 who run an 8 minute pace have put some time and effort into doing so, or are fit from other activities. I doubt I will make that time in my next race (Saturday), but I'll try! My other health goal is to get down to 199. I seem to be losing slowly (read: very slowly), but surely. Even through the holidays, it seems like I am taking off around 1 pound every 10 days or so. So in 7 weeks I should be there!

Okay, now to that HTML!

At least every 30 days...

I have to do something to embarrass myself. Thus tonight I found myself in kick-boxing class, and it wasn't a pretty sight. Your average paraplegic has better moves than I do. Still, it got my heart rate up, and I did it after 40 minutes on the elliptical, so my huge Japanese Steakhouse dinner didn't make me feel quite so guilty! It is my friend ****'s birthday, and it is one of his and his girlfriends favorite places. (His GF is Bebop, who used to work for me many years ago)

Anyhow, Happy Birthday Thug! Since he is one of the two people I know who watch Galactica (used to be the only one until I finally converted G-Max), I thought this would be a good b-day pic, (plus I haven't put up any sexy pics lately).

Some of my friends would ask...

Which one is the scammer?

One of my more unusual hobbies is collecting Nigerian Scam Emails (so if you have any please forward them my way!)...you know, the ones where some Nigerian first-born prince wants to send you 10 million bucks or so if you'll just transfer him $60,000 for lord knows what. Hundreds of people in the US were scammed (and a few are still being scammed) out of huge dollars before they become well-known, and now are almost passe, and somewhat a joke. Thus, I nearly fell out of my chair when I stumbled across this (here):

TO: Bush, George W.
FR: Hassan_JIM
RE: An EXCITING Opporotunity I Give You
My friend Bush, George W. FIRST, I MUST SOLICIT YOUR STRICTEST CONFIDENCE IN THIS TRANSACTION. I have small time to receive answer from you to my urgent desire. I am Hassan of United Arab Emirates. My great grand father has just gone to his fate by POLITICAL ASSASSINN'S KILL and in order for the collection of my inheritance I must have from valid AMERICAN bank account routing number and chance to control ports. However the government here is rigid and to would take this inheritance from my righteous family. My great grand father was wealthy financeir with many fortunes from his young biz ness, DUBAI PORTS WORLD! I need urgent help. I ask YOU personally for hands in this matter. I wanted to contact you on the telephone but it is tapped. I must E-MAIL. Provide me AMERICAN banking account numbers for transfer and contract of port control. This transaction is quiet and very safe from the eyes of lookers. In exchange for your saving, I desire to you send $40 million in your dollars. This is urgent request. Please give me reply quickly, for the time is low. If you will only provide American bank account and give east coast ports to DUBAI PORTS WORLD bliss will be upon our families. Please, your speedful reply is what is needed. I will contact you Bush, George W, swifty after.
YOURS FAITHFULLY,
Hassan
DPW

Sprint PCS me off too...

I must have a big sign on my back that says 'that's Tobias, he'll pay for anything.' After my conversation with Capital One, I looked online and saw my cell bill had been charged to my bank account at $95 and change. Hmm, that's odd, considering my cell plan runs about $72.

So I call Sprint and they tell me 'We only charged you $72, the other must be for 'premium services' that you would have ordered through text messaging.' About a month back I started to recieve horoscopes by email on my phone every day; I didn't think anything of it and thought it was spam, especially since they were sending me Pisces horoscopes, and I am a Capricorn. (And the fact that I would never spend good money on something idiotic like 20 words words of wisdom sent to my phone every day)

Apparently they had been charging me a buck a day for something I knew nothing about. The first call to Sprint, they said, 'Oh, you just have to text message them back and they will stop.' Me: 'It's not the cancelling I am worried about, its getting my $23 back. Well, yes, and the fact that I have no idea how to text message them back, and have never text messaged anyone on this phone, so they need to not be charging people who don't sign up for their crappy spam' I spent another 10 minutes on the phone with Joe Clueless before I got fed up. 10 minutes later I called back and found someone avec clue who said he would get my money refunded and walked me through getting the 'premium service' cancelled. I find it hard to believe, but there is no person I could actually call to get the horoscopes cancelled, and I had to do it through a text message (actually, 2 text messages). Talk about making 'opting out' of something cumbersome.

Oh, one note to everyone: if you have a montly plan for anything, like premium websites, phone service, annual fees, whatever...just tell them you will cancel and they will lower your rate, nearly guaranteed. While I was on the phone with the first Sprint guy I told them I wanted to cancel my $15/month PCS vision plan, and he immediately offered to cut the rate by 50%. I'm so glad they offered that to me before I wanted to cancel it! The same has happened with anything I've had a monthly or annual fee for.

Caveat emptor redux.

Capital Done...

Oy vei...sometimes I feel like I am gaining some ground in my finances, on others I realize I can still easily do some very stupid things. So I have (should be 'had', but more on that in a bit) a Capital One card. It was a no-annual fee card, good interest rate, the whole nine. Well, I haven't had a balance on it in over a year, and somewhere in the fine print it says that if I don't use it for a year, they can charge me an annual fee. Well, every time a bill from them comes in, it goes straight into the shredder without being opened, because its got a 0 balance right?

Duh. So in November I get hit with an annual fee, of course followed up with a late fee in December, January and February. Finally I get a note from the little credit-guy about a week or so ago (one of those services that tell you when there is a change to your credit report...it's expensive, but in this case very worth it) saying I had a bad mark hit my credit report. Ugg, I haven't had a bad mark on my credit report since my bankruptcy in 2000, so I'm a little miffed. So I immediately paid off the balance, and called Capital One later that morning after several cups of not-Dunkin-Donuts coffee.

Me: Hi there, I'd like to close my credit card account. I got whacked by the invisible annual fee, and although I do realize I should probably open my mail every month, I got used to 0 balances blahblahblah.
Them: You are such a fantabulous customer, if you'll stay with us we'll waive your annual fee.
Me: Umm, but I didn't have an annual fee, and after not using my card for a year, you charged me an annual fee and dinged my credit.
Them: Well, we can even credit your account the annual fee you paid this year.
Me: Umm, that doesn't help me with the $100 in late fees you've charged me. I still want to close my account, thanks anyway though.
Them: Ok, I will process your cancellation.

So all seems well and good, and I have a little bit more money wisdom under my belt (Yes, Mom, I am horribly embarrassed!). A week later (yesterday I think), I get a note in the mail from Capital One. I figured it was my cancellation confirmation or a beg me to stay letter or somesuch. But no.

'Sir, thank you for deciding to keep your account open with Capital One. Per our conversation, you will no longer be charged an annual fee.'

I know I am dense sometimes, but holy senile misrepresentation Batman!

Anyhoo, I am expecting to have another useful conversation with them tomorrow.

Whee, caveat emptor and all that.

Changes

Hmm...I've been thinking about how to reorganize the site, and some changes that are a long time coming. This will require speaking to the dreaded HTML-Monster, something that I have greatly feared.

The easy changes will be modifying my blogroll to include more stuff, and will probably be broken down into categories of political, personal, and gaming, at least to start.

I've long considered putting alot of my gaming and D&D stuff online to help my players with backstory, history, anecdotes, stories and the like, but I didn't want to put up too much stuff that was of little interest to anyone else. I think I will ask my brother how I make a subdomain, probably http://games.loopingthehen.com if I can figure out how to manage it. It would also include any Mini-related items, including builds, game reports and the like.

That would leave the main site basically the same, ie. nothing much going on. I'm not quite sure how to fix that, but my brain seems to run in spurts, with focus in vastly different directions depending on the week, month, phase of the moon, or whatever else distracts me. I definitely need that tropical vacation! We are going to go to some exotic place this year, right G?

Anyhoo, I hope to start some of this later in the week; anyone with good (or popular) video game sites that they read, D&D sites, political sites, etc, feel free to drop them by and I will check them out and see if I should include them in my links.

Night y'all!

Not Quite Prefontaine...

But then again, nobody is or ever will be. Still, I finally made two of my goals yesterday at the Predator's 5k.

It was below freezing when the race started, but that was mainly because of the wind funnelling around the Gaylord Entertainment Center. By the time we hit mile 1, it was beautiful and felt almost like 40, which was perfect for the way I was dressed.

I was a little disconcerted when the timer said I crossed the one mile at 10:20, but I found out at the end my chip time was around 1:40. (the chip keeps track of when you cross the starting line, and starts your 'personal' clock then) My main goal was to run a 26:30, and I felt like I was way off pace because I thought my chip time was only around a minute or so. I ended up at 25:38, and the course may have been the hardest one yet, or just barely 2nd to the Frostbite race in 5 degree weather. There were two significant uphills at the start of the race, and another at the end. A good downhill following the last up helped me make up some time though, and I had a good kick left for the finish. (even though I felt like I was being tortured by some hideous running deity!)

My 2nd goal was to have my last mile be faster than my first, and it was by about 10 seconds. This one was important because all my other races showed how bad my wind was, because my last mile has always been a minute or so slower than my first.

All in all, a beautiful race, and the t-shirts were pretty nice: 100% soft cotton and an attractive design.

Go me!

See AKBar, I'm not that nerdy!

I have proof!

Now my girl Jess? Much, much nerdier!

This one is for G-Max

To be honest, I don't know why ET for the Atari has such a bad rap. Although I never completed it, I enjoyed playing it at G-Max's house quite frequently, and he probably finished it 10 or more times I would guess. For us, it was almost like the first RPG, even if we were just a lil alien guy with a jack-in-the-box head. Although Tunnels of Doom for the TI-99 4Awas our first real RPG, ET was definitely ahead of it's time.

Ars and Escapist: Anti-Capitalist?

I found several articles a couple of weeks back regarding the evils of RMT, or real money transfer, i.e. selling in-game items or credits in MMOG's for cash. For those who know me know or read other parts of this blog know that I have sold Eve ISK on a regular basis. Although I've never done it on a large scale, it's been a decent source of income for the last year or so.

Having once been in the 'anti-RMT' camp rather zealously, I understand this Editor's Note at the Escapist and the accompanying rally cry. Having read on the issue for a while, and being on both sides at different points, I don't think I have been confronted by any persuasive arguments against it. I almost joined the flame war on this post at Ars, below was the response I was thinking of entering into the discussion. Since I don't think anyone ever changes anyone's mind in comments sections (generally), I figured I would be better off posting it here:

I am always slightly amused when I read the anti-goldfarm crowd decry the evils of goldfarming. I do understand their point of view, as I used to be a 'purest' gamer. I abhored currency selling in all its forms. I wouldn't even put an extra quarter in an arcade video game because I thought that was cheating. I look back now and wonder how much interesting content I missed because I refused to do so? I still spent the quarters, but all I ended up doing was seeing the same early levels over and over.

How many people who say goldfarming is cheating save their games in single-player RPG's just before a big combat? And how many reload and reload and reload until they make it through without losing any of their characters? One person's cheating is another person's opportunity.

One thing I try to keep in mind is that there are two sides to every discussion. I understand the anti-farming point of view, because I've been on it. However, I don't think the anti-farmers put a lot of effort into understanding the other side.

Today, I am a casual ISK seller in Eve Online. (Flame on!) For those who say that people who buy gold (or in this case ISK) 'don't really like the game', I have to say that is absolutely not the truth. There are so many people who are incredibly excited to play a game, but have such a hard time getting over one hump or another, or find the game simply overwhelming, that without the measly amount of ISK I sell them, would most likely quit the game.

I know there are many thinking 'good riddance', but from what I have found for the most part, people who buy ISK from me are good people, with good social skills, who really want to play the game. They are not buying from me because they want 'uber' anything; they just want a little help, but hate begging in-game. When I stop and chat with them for a half-hour or so about the intricacies of Eve and how I made (and have just about sold through) my fortune, they often sign off by telling me they learned more about the game in that half-hour, than in all the days and weeks prior.

The funny thing was, at one point, Eve was no fun for me. It was a grind, because I couldn't seem to get to where I wanted to be. I quit for months and months, and would come back every once in a while to give it another whirl, because I knew somewhere, there was a game I wanted to play inside its huge, complex shell. Then I'd get discouraged and quit again. One day, I was browsing Ebay for something or other, and saw minerals that I hadn't been able to acquire ingame very successfully. I bought just two lots of minerals for around $15, and have been hooked on Eve ever since. It finally got me over my 'hump', to the point where I made enough that I could sell ISK to get others over theirs also.

And guess what? I don't steal anyone's loot. I don't camp anyone's spawn. I trade. I buy low and sell high. Most of the time, I don't even leave the station I am in. You may not like it, but I sell some of those profits, and in doing so, help some people out while at the same time helping me balance my checkbook. Most of y'all demonize people who buy and sell currency, but I know 80% of you play with and are friends with people who do one or the other; y'all just don't know it. I sell to players in the largest guilds and alliances in my game; people who don't want to feel like a drain to their guild, but want to feel like they are contributing. I help them do that.

If gold-farming rules were enforced 100%, I bet the impact would be a far greater negative than most realize. Good people who could be good friends would quit before we get a chance to know them. Good ideas would never get implemented due to lack of resources. Many of you think you have it all figured out. However, after being on both sides, I have to say that at least in my case, RMT really did facilitate fun far more successfully than grinding and quitting ever did.