A funny episode played out when I walked to the mailbox just now.

On my way over, I noticed half a dozen pigeons walking around and coo’ing at each other. I guess it’s warm enough for them to start coming out now.

I also noticed they seemed really fat.

I was wondering what the hell they were eating. I guess there’s pine cones here and there (do birds even eat those?) and maybe some other seeds growing in the grass. But I think most of the bugs around are still hibernating (do bugs even do that?)

I found out during my walk back home. As I passed by the birds again, an old lady emerged from one of the nearby houses with some trash to throw in the dumpster. When the door opened, I heard the sound of birds flapping their wings to fly away. Except they weren’t.

They weren’t flying away from her; they were flying toward her. It was the weirdest thing. She seemed to ignore them, and they literally just walked behind her, like chicks walking behind a hen. The lady throw her trash away and started walking back to her house. The birds still followed. Man I want a gang of birds.

We checked out South Point Casino this past weekend. Lori told us that there’s an 80’s band that plays there on Saturday nights, so we went to check it out. It was pretty good times. We got there about an hour early and played slots until the show.

South Point is off the strip, but still on Las Vegas Blvd - just more south. There are more locals there, and there was a whole different vibe. Kerri won about twenty bucks on the penny slots right before the show started, and that’s where our luck changed.

The Spazmatics play there every Saturday night at 10:30. The show went on until about 1:30 (including an ‘intermission’ break that lasted about half an hour, during which, 90’s music videos played). The band had this “hey-look-at-us-we’re-dressed-up-like-nerds!” gimmick going on that they didn’t seem to want to let go of, along with a box of sound effects that they’d use like they were a bad radio morning show.

All in all, the music (what little of it there was) seemed all right, but by the time they got around to the last songs of the night, I was looking to leave. When they were finally done, Kerri and I were saying “Finally. Let’s get out of here” to each other.

They’re definitely no Dirty Thunder, and I’m not just saying that, either. I really miss you guys. Vegas needs you.

Kerri’s family flew back to Hawaii this morning. It was good times when they were here - they came in last Thursday, and we were downtown to hang out with them every day until last night.

I lost some money on slots and even more at the tables. After convincing Kerri to play blackjack with me for the first time ever, we both lost about fifty bucks (she left the table with a half-dollar coin, though).

There was also a whole lot of eating that was done this past weekend. I think we had prime rib several times and two buffets. Now I’ve got a layer of fat around my waist that feels like it’s a few inches thick (I’m not kidding).  I’ll try burning it off…after I’m done playing Mass Effect. That game’s awesome.

This is part 2 in my ongoing struggle with a deadbeat buyer on ebay. Part 1 can be found here.

So 7 days have passed since I first opened the case against the buyer. I was finally able to take “corrective action against him”.

The whole thing was pretty anticlimactic. When I logged onto my Ebay account, there was a new option available to me to close the case (Ebay didn’t email me a reminder, by the way - I had to go to Ebay and do it manually).

Closing the case had three options:

1. Let them know the seller responded and paid for the item.
2. Let them know the seller still hasn’t responded, to close the case, and the seller gets something called an “Unpaid Item Strike”
3. Let them know that you and the seller have agreed to just end the case mutually.

I chose option 2. I think my fees were credited back to my account, and they gave me 300 characters to add any comments. I just wrote a short complaint letting them know that the buyer bid on multiple auctions with the intention to only pay for one of them, and that was that.

I have no idea what an “unpaid item strike” is but I have a feeling it’s not a huge deal.

Pretty anti climactic. Thanks a lot, Ebay! Jerks.

(PS: Anybody of you guys want a John Mayer Blu Ray disc?)

I’ve been MIA lately. Kerri’s parents and a bunch of her other family is in town this weekend and we’ve been spending time with them (and spending lots of time - and money - over at the Cal and Main Street). I’ll be back this week, though. Don’t worry.

Amid the many things that make me understand why the world’s citizens dislike our great country (like criminal ex-CEO’s who still get to keep their mansions and televised eating contests), there are gems like Improv Everywhere’s newest performance that restore a bit of my faith.

Highfive!

At the risk of sounding too much like a hippie, I liked watching the faces of many people. From many nations. Coming together. That’s worth a high five right there.

This is the first in a multi-part series documenting my consumer experience as a seller with a bad-Ebay (ie: Ebay after their new b.s. revised seller policies) and a bad Ebay’er.

Two weeks ago, I put up an auction for a blu ray disc we had lying around. The auction ended at around 10 bucks last Sunday. Usually, winning bidders make payment that same day, or within a few days, but this buyer never got back to me. I tried contacting him again several days later, but still no response.

After nearly a week, I looked at his feedback history (which was small and meant he was a new user) and found out that the dude bought the same exact disc from another auction that had a buy-it-now option (mine didn’t).

I guess this guy decided that he’d pay nearly twice as much so that he could have his stupid John Mayer disc a few days sooner, and screw me over in the process.

Yeah, yeah, the auction was for a disc of a live John Mayer concert. Don’t laugh. I got it as a free hand-out at the CES. And no, I never even opened it because we don’t have a blu ray player…err I mean, I’m not a huge John Mayer fan (AND don’t have a blu ray player).

I tried leaving him negative feedback but this is when I remembered/realized that Ebay’s newest policies do not allow sellers to leave negative feedback for buyers, which of course, is b.s.

On hearing that, I was always curious about how sellers on Ebay would thus be protected. Ebay has a whole bunch of “buyer protection” measures, but not as much for sellers. Or do they? It looks like I’ll get to find out first hand. And I’ll be sharing the experience with you.

I’m not too bothered about the money, since it’s only a matter of ten bucks or so. I’m more upset with the principle.

Anyway.

I found out that I was able to place some sort of “non payment report” on the seller. This is only an option after seven days have passed. I’ve been wanting to do this for two days now, but rules are rules (thanks, Ebay). I was finally able to place the report this morning, though.

Placing the nonpayment report was easy. When you revisit the auction page, there’s a link that allows you to file the report. From there, you fill out two dropdown lists. No chance to type anything else out or offer any kind of explanation. So far it looks like the seller really IS more protected.

Supposedly, Ebay will contact the seller directly and get back to me in seven days. We’ll see if anything happens.

I’ll keep you all posted.

Hey Andrew - I’m making tomyum soup for dinner tonight. Woo!

Reid and Lori are coming over for dinner, so Kerri told me to vacuum the carpet today.

The stock part of the soup’s simmering on the stove now. Other than that, I just played Need For Speed Undercover all day. Maggie Q is gross. bleh.

I’m on my third beer tonight and I haven’t even started cooking the main part yet. Pabst Blue Ribbon FTW!

IN THE BOOK: (Warning, spoilers ahead) Washington State. Girl falls for young looking dude who’s actually an old-dude vampire. They become more and more drawn to each other. Girl meet vampire dude’s vampire family who accept her into their lives. vampire-hunter (ie: vampire that’s a hunter) comes after girl. Girl rescued. Hilarity ensues.

IN REAL LIFE: New Jersey. Girl falls for old looking vampire dude who’s actually not really a vampire, but just an old-dude. Girl decides ‘I’m-just-not-that-into-you’. Girl’s family also disapproves. Old not-vampire dude goes apeshit and in effort to get rid of him, girl claims to be a vampire hunter (ie: hunter of vampires). Not-vampire dude comes after girl. Girl rescued. Jailarity ensues:

Yep, that’s the nonfiction version, anyway. Check it out: ‘Vampyre’ jailed after allegedly harassing teen. And here’s an extra bonus pic for the fans from nj.com:

Life Imitating Art - FAIL!!

(PS: Kenny, you don’t know how relieved I am to know I’m not the only dude who’s read that book. Thanks!)

Yeah, I know. Don’t laugh.

This is going to be a looo-ong story (or posting):

So I’ve been reading a bunch of books with long paragraphs and small typeface. Among my last four:

• Everyday Survival: Why Smart People Do Stupid Things, by Laurence Gonzales (this one was a BIG WASTE OF TIME, but more on that later)
• Why Choose This Book, by Read Montague
• Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You, by Sam Gosling
• Don’t Stop Believin - How Karaoke Conquered the World and Changed my Life, by Brian Raftery.

All good books - EXCEPT for “Everyday Survival” - that book was a total waste of time! It was interesting for the first few chapters, but the author suddenly started going severely off-topic, rambling about the environment and getting really preachy, while bragging about travels that he’s gone on. Toward the end of the book, he offers some half-assed explanation about how he’s still on topic (I didn’t buy it).

When I checked out user reviews on amazon.com for his book, I found that most everyone else felt the same way about the book. I kind of wish I knew about that sooner, but I guess that’s the risk you run when you randomly pick a book off the shelf. (an interesting aside - when I looked back at the blurbs on the back of the book jacket, they were all praises for one of the author’s OTHER books!).

Anyway, so I read such a crappy book and follow it up with the three other books, which were way better, but I still had that bad taste in my mouth. I was going to start up on a book I’ve been eager to read ever since I heard about it on NPR last year - The World Without Us, by Alan Weisman. It’s a hypothetical situation about how the nature would recover the earth if all human beings suddenly disappeared overnight.

I was on one of the early chapters, about how most modern houses would probably fall apart in 50 to 100 years without maintenance, starting near the chimneys and nails (where there are holes or punctures in the materials). And I realized that I still had that bad taste from “Everyday Survival” on my mind (I only finished that book last Saturday - I finished the other three all this week. Yes, that’s how much time one has to read when one has no job).

(I’m totally ruining my own paragraphs with all these parenthetical notes).

Anyway, realizing I still had to get my mind off of last week’s book, I put down the one I was reading this morning and was going to play video games, but lying on the coffee table was that copy of Twilight that Kerri checked out from the library. I picked it up, wondering what all the hype was about.

The book’s pages have a narrow text area, the typeface is large(r), and the paragraphs are short. Man it was such easy reading - now wonder all the little girls liked it so much! I just kept going through it.

I started reading it this afternoon. I just finished all 499 pages about an hour ago. What the heck just happened?! I somehow feel guilty and ashamed about this…. but what the hell, I’ll just categorize this one as a fail AND a win, and click “publish” anyway.

HERE IT GOES! WOOO!!!!