Robert’s Rants & Rationalizations

It will be another year before I can do what I just missed out on. Back in the ’80′s, I converted my father’s 8mm films to video with my older brother’s VHS camcorder. I rented an 8mm projector and a screen. I shot the screen and ended up with two hours of video.

I finally converted the VHS tape to DVD and brought one to the beach house where we gathered for a week this year. Being in the business, I should have anticipated all the comments the siblings would make when they would see each other, and themselves, on the tube. What I would have done is videotaped everyone as they watched the video. Then, I’d take the footage and assemble the audio track and burn a final DVD to give to everyone.

Do you see what I’m doing? You can apply this to photos in an album…you’ll miss the stories if you don’t have your parents sit down and flip through those pages. Yes, it can be embarassing, but that short time of embarassment is less painful than the thought of never having your mother adding color to a photo of you in the backyard or riding your first bike!

My mother has a collage that is quickly fading away. I want to photograph the collage, sit my mother down and have her go through each photo and tell the story behind each of them. My father past away a few years ago, so I lost his perspective which is HUGE! Now, I have my mother left to tell the stories, and these photos are her collection.

With today’s high megapixel cameras, you can easily get very good quality of photos without the trouble of getting in tight and lighting it properly.

So, get out there and do it before you lose the opportunity. Think of it as the equivalent of not keeping those recipes that Mom or Grandma had, and no one made the effort to learn those or kept them!!!

I hope we are each around next year. That’s my next opportunity, and when it is done, no matter the production quality, it will be something to cherish as it is our connection to our past…long time ago.

I signed-up with HostGator.com at 2:25pm, Friday (8/17/07). I used PayPal to pay my first month’s fee. I’ve been a user of PayPal for over five years (is it closer to eight?) I provide an existing domain name and select the option that states that I will supply the nameservers to point to Hostgator’s nameservers.

Five minutes later, I receive an email from HostGator..
“Notification of a Pending eCheck Payment Received”

That’s a major flag…WHY??? I signed into DreamHost (back in 2004) and had my site setup, emailed my account information all within minutes!

I used the link in the 2:31pm PST email about the open ticket regarding my pending authorization of my account payment. I wrote a reply that I was going to try to find a way to pay with my credit card and if I can’t, I’ll cancel my account.

I found my online invoice, found the link to pay and paid with my credit card. This happed at 6:30pm. My receipt email is stamped at 6:31pm.

William in HostGator Sales emailed me at thirty minutes later to state that my eCheck cleared. eCheck? I immediately replied to get a clarification on the status of my payments, the echeck and my credit card. Are there two payments, now, or what?

It’s 7:30pm, and I am still waiting for 1) a response, and 2) my account information which I’m supposed to get when the payment goes through (one hour ago)!

Updates to Come!

By 8pm PST, I was chatting online with support and they resent the account setup info. I now have to follow up with ‘Sales’ about the paypal and the credit card charges. Support only shows one charge.

I took a few days off from the ‘net and spent time on the California coast in the town of Santa Cruz, just a block off the cliffs. NICE.

On my way back into Silicon Valley, the route commonly taken is Highway 17 (also known as Highway 880 once in Santa Clara County and north into Oakland). What commonly happens is that the cars get into a grouping in the left, or ‘fast’ lane. A white Ford Escort wagon came up from behind, got in the right lane when the opportunity arose and proceeded to pass me and almost the next car when the right lane, as it always does, slows due to larger vehicles like 18-wheeler rigs, RVs, mobile homes, etc. The Escort driver signaled (last time I write that to explain what he did!) to change into my lane and in front of me. Fine.

At his next opportunity, he went into the right lane and began to accerlate past the car that was now in front of me. Again, he was met with slower traffic, and as we all approached a bend, my lane and his, slowed…I late-braked and closed up the space which he wanted to get into, although he did not use his turn indicators or the alternate arm signal. He did motion his arm straight out and turned his palm upward and then bent is elbow to lift the arm just a bit like to gesture, ‘What’s the deal?’. Hehehe.

I just hate these type of drivers, especially in four-bangers (okay, I have a four-banger, but mine has a turbo and is factory lowered with stiffer suspension and matched spring rates and shocks! Compare to an “Escort wagon” setup.)

Successive attempts to get into my lane were successful because I wasn’t really in the mood to make it real tough for him as he didn’t have a great grasp of his car’s excessive rear-end weight shifting through turns as he made last second course corrections (understeer turns into oversteer!). My SPG doens’t shift that much when I make that type of quick adjustment. It is much smoother and predictable. Plus, the steering is a close-ratio steering box which has saved me several times in surface traffic situations where people don’t signal or don’t notice the person in front of them are stopping or deciding to turn into a parking lot!

Yes, not a very eventful time, but worth expressing myself on this situation. thx.