FBI Violent Crime Report

Last night, I heard a distrubing news story on WREG in Memphis. Memphis was selected by the FBI as the second most violent city right now. After hearing that all big cities this year have experienced an increase in crime, this really put things in perspective. The report brings up feelings of sadness and fear for me. I hope that Memphians will look at it as a catalist for change. Here's a little piece from the FBI's press release about the overall national rise in crime:

The violent crime category includes murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault offenses. Nationally, preliminary data for 2005 showed increases in three of the four violent crimes from the previous year’s data. The number of murders and nonnegligent manslaughters rose 4.8 percent. Robbery offenses increased 4.5 percent, and the number of aggravated assaults was up 1.9 percent. Forcible rape was the only offense among the violent crimes that decreased in volume in 2005, down 1.9 percent from the 2004 figure.

A breakdown of the 2005 data by population group revealed that all city population groups experienced increases in violent crime when compared with those data reported for the previous year, with the exception of the Nation’s largest cities, 1 million and over in population, where the number of violent crimes was down 0.4 percent. By percent change in the number of violent crime offenses in 2005 compared with totals from 2004, cities with populations from 500,000 to 999,999 inhabitants saw the greatest increase, 8.3 percent, and cities with populations of 10,000 to 24,999 saw the smallest increase, 0.5 percent. In the Nation’s metropolitan counties, violent crime was up 2.1 percent, and in nonmetropolitan counties, it increased 1.0 percent.

A further examination of violent crime data for the population groups showed that cities with populations from 100,000 to 249,999 had the greatest increase in the number of murders, up 12.5 percent. Cities with 500,000 to 999,999 inhabitants experienced the greatest increases in both robbery, 9.9 percent, and aggravated assault, 8.5 percent. The number of offenses of forcible rape decreased in all city population groups except in those cities with under 10,000 in population, where the number of forcible rape offenses was up 1.5 percent from the 2004 level.

The Nation’s four regions all saw increases in violent crime in 2005. The Midwest experienced the steepest increase, 5.7 percent. The West had a 1.9-percent increase from the previous year’s number; the South, a 1.8-percent rise; and the Northeast, a 1.4-percent increase. All four regions had increases in murder, robbery, and aggravated assault. Contrary to the other three violent crime offenses, the number of forcible rapes declined in each region.

TGIF

Thank goodness it's finally Friday. You may have noticed that my posts the past two weeks have been sparse. Things have been busy; really busy.

The last month in a nutshell:

• Accept job, schedule movers, movers take stuff away
• Stay with BoRyan for a week, wrapping up loose ends in California
  
• Drive to Memphis from Santa Monica, move into a hotel
  
• Get keys to new apartment
• Unpack, unpack, unpack
• Fly to Las Vegas for 5 days for a business trip
  
• Fly back to Memphis
• Move into new apartment
  
• Work, work

By the end of yesterday, I was completely running on fumes. I was so tired that articulating words and forming sentences was starting to become a real task.

Things should improve after the weekend though. Since I've only slept 2 nights so far in my new place, sleeping is a bit of a chore itself. Hopefully, I'll adjust soon.

Still on the agenda:

• Get rid of the boxes
• Put away office supplies
• Hang pictures
• Put up decorations
• Organize closet
• Figure out how in the world to get 5 boxes, a chair, etc. to Goodwill...
• SLEEP
  

Oh yes, and I need to figure out how in the world to get the blinds to come down on one of my windows. I have two giant windows in the apartment. They each have blinds. Whoever was in the apartment before me pulled both sets of blinds all the way up. One set is so far up though that I can't get them back down. And they start so high up that I can't just grab them and try to fix it. This is going to be tricky...

I'm also still searching for a good hair stylist and trainer. My old stylist in Memphis moved to Florida.

On a side note, I went to Stella's for the first time yesterday. There I had a tasty hummus and pita combination with mac & cheese. It was very tasty and the place itself was beautiful.

Well, I should probably get up and start the day. Hopefully it will be a short one. As much as I really like what I'm doing, I'm tired. Thank goodness it's Friday.

It's Official: I've Made It Back to Memphis

Well, if I wasn't sure before, this morning definitely marked my return. Good Morning America filmed from Beale Street this morning and Justin Timberlake performed his new Bringing Sexy Back song.

And like the other downtowners, I was there bright and early to see the sun come up. The show was good-- Justin sang 3 songs and the crowd was extremely happy to see him. I must say, he's done a great job with his marketing.

A few things that I found to be interesting:

1. People who were so excited about the show that they were worried about not getting in-- They either slept out on the street last night or they showed up at 4 this morning.
2. The part where the city booed the mayer. Was that really necessary on national TV? C'mon!!
3. The person with the pink sign: Seriously, you were the only person who didn't put your sign down when the show started. And, it was a sign to say hello to your grandparents in Florida. Did you really need to hold that up in front of me and everyone else to block our view during the concert? The camera wasn't actually filming most of the time...
4. The people who were smoking in the crowd: Why is this even remotely acceptable? I choose not to smoke. I don't need your help.
5. The people who had stayed out all night from the night before: They were still wearing dance clothes and had on wrist bands from the local bars. That was a sure sign that I'm back. There's no other city I've seen where it's fairly normal to party until breakfast. :-)

Let me just pat myself on the back for not buying into the 4 AM hype. I slept in until 5:20, took a shower, went and had some breakfast, and then walked down to Beale Street around 6:15. The timing couldn't have been better! The show started around 6:30 or 6:45 and it wasn't too crowded.

After an eventful morning, it's time to take a nap!

G'nite!

Inertia

From Dictionary.com:

in‧er‧tia  /ɪnˈɜrʃə, ɪˈnɜr-/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[in-ur-shuh, i-nur-]
–noun

In Physics: The property of matter by which it retains its state of rest or its velocity along a straight line so long as it is not acted upon by an external force.

From me:
My life's inertia has been disturbed.

Memphis Apartment

Now that I've gotten my apartment situation all squared away, I wanted to let you know about another cool place downtown.

Angie & I toured this condo that's for rent in Paperworks. If you've been looking for an apartment in downtown Memphis, but are tired of the filled up complexes, this might be something to check out.

The apartment manager contacted me today to say that if I was still in the market for an apartment, I could have it. But since I already have one, I thought I'd post it here in case you're interested.

It's 1400 square feet with 2 parking spaces and free cable. Oh yeah, and the first month's rent is free. Here's the ad on Craiglist.

Here are a couple of photos:

Healthcare

It looks like I'll be switching my healthcare again, so that I'll have coverage in TN while I switch over.

I didn't have the best experience explaining this to Blue Cross of California over the phone today. I had hoped to just call them and say that I'd be moving... and then they'd be a little like my car insurance and just switch me over to the new state-- with a slightly lower rate.

(I'll be saving around 30% on my car insurance for moving back to TN btw.)

Anyhow, I had to talk to 3 different operators over the course of 30 minutes. Each person just couldn't believe I'd be calling to switch. One person suggested that I shouldn't actually change my health insurance-- that I should just buy the minimum coverage and then go to the emergency room if I really have to. Umm... that's really not what I had in mind.

So it looks like after all that, even if I want to stay with Blue Cross I have to completely reapply from square one. Wonderful. I hope I have enough information with me right now to get it done. Plus, it takes two weeks to become active, so I've really got to go ahead and put it in the system.

Instead of calling back to get frustrated customer service people, I've decided to revert back to the way that I got Blue Cross in the first place-- using eHealthInsurance.com. They allow you to input a few varables and then compare plans with lots of different companies.

Hopefully they won't complain that I'm moving to TN or suggest I just go to the ER. :-)

This is the link to eHealthInsurance:

Iraq for Sale and Great Labor Day Burgers

Yesterday turned out to be a little different than I would have pictured. In the morning, I woke up and was working on my ever growing to do list while watching Good Day LA on Fox. You may have seen the show called Good Day Live in other parts of the country. I rarely watch this show, but as I channel surfed around, I noticed they were cooking burgers. I stopped to see what was going on and quickly found out that Father's Office was showing how to make their famous hamburgers. Father's Office is a bar in Santa Monica on Montana that I do like. I've been there maybe 3 times and always with BoRyan or Pepperdine students. I've never actually had food there though, so I made a note that I should consider having a burger if I find myself there again and then went back to my to do list.


Then I remembered an e-mail that I received a few days before. It was from Brave New Films, the people who made the documentary about Wal-Mart. They had just finished up a new movie and had a few seats remaining at the world premire here in Santa Monica. To me, one of the selling points to go was that the filmmaker, Robert Greenwald, was going to be there afterward to answer questions about the movie.

So after finishing up as much of my to do list as possible, BoRyan and I headed down at around 5:45 last night. We stood in line for a little over an hour I guess, but it was actually quite interesting just to watch all of the interesting people that came. Because of the subject, I expected the people who came to see it to be young and outspoken. Most of them turned out to have white hair. Most of the people there were in their 60's at least. I was surprised. Where's our generation?

Anyway-- you may be wondering what the movie is about. The movie is about the contracting companies that the government hires to help out during war. You may have seen or read a little about this topic in the news. A few of the companies it discussed were Haliburton and CACI. It talked a lot about the danger that the civilian workers are unexpectadly put under, and how it endangers them and our troops. There were people who thought they were going over to do internet research that ended up having to interrogate prisioners, etc. The movie also highlighted the excessive amount of money that the companies appear to be making on the war. They talk some about how in the past it was considered immoral to make a profit on the war, and now corporations seem to be okay with it. The US military seemed to not be a big fan of these companies either, for many of the reasons described above.

The movie was created to start a dialogue. I would be interested to hear more on the other side of the debate too. I think though that this movie is well made, contains more solid facts than some documentaries I've seen, and also honors the families who have lost loved ones in Iraq.

Just like The Wal-Mart Movie, this movie is a grass roots effort. Instead of seeing the movie in a theatre, you are encouraged to host a viewing. You can host one in your home, at your school, at church, anywhere. I think it would be nice to host one with people that have mixed feelings on the issue-- and then host a debate afterward.

If you are interested to host a viewing, you can. Go to www.IraqforSale.com and request a copy of the movie for a showing. Actually, here's a direct link to sign up to do a showing. The cost is around $10. If it's anything like The Wal-Mart Movie, they'll send you a DVD, two movie posters, some stickers (or some other promotional items), and a sheet with questions that you can use to start a discussion after the movie.

I encourage you to give it a try. It's fun!

(Oh yea, and Ariana Huffington from the popular Huffington Post blog was there to ask questions too. I don't see anything in her blog about the movie yet, but I'm betting it will be there soon.)

After the movie, we went to Father's Office and tried their famous hamburgers. They were tasty! As a matter of fact, I'm going to have them for lunch today too. :-) They have a special sauce made with carmelized onions (for 2 days they marinate the sauce). I think it also has some brown sugar and mustard, but that's just my guess. They served it on a fresh baked hoagie with some great french fries. The french fries were those thin, crispy ones that you can tell are home made. They were sprinkled with some kind of herb and served with a dipping sauce that tasted to me like mayo, butter, garlic, and herbs.

Yumm!

Yippeee!

I got an apartment!! It couldn't have happened at a better time. The movers are here today taking my belongings and I'm actually going to have a real address!

SWEET!

Arrrgggg............

It's been one of those weeks... the kind you don't even really want to talk about because it's been so stressful you don't want to relive it all.

I'm in the middle of my move... finding out that the movers may very well possibly charge me based on a totally different scheme than they quoted me in the first place. It would be one thing if I went over somehow, but it's looking like they may just use a completely different method. I'm so annoyed...

Update: I spoke with the movers today. The paper they gave me yesterday was a rate sheet for in town moves. They (supposedly) weren't supposed to give it to me. They are charging me close to the first quote, but it will be determined by a little more than weight. So, instead of being three times the quote, it may be $50 more. Whew-- that was close!

And... I'm still looking for a place to live in Memphis. I've been searching for a condo downtown to rent. Today, it feels like it's going terribly. I've been watching the ads for around 6 weeks now, and I've found that this is the latest pattern for posting apartments downtown:

1. First post: Post a one line ad for an apartment with an extemely high price tag.
2. Second post: Post a one line ad + extremely high price tag + 2-4 photos and possibly a link to more photos
3. Third post: Post a long ad with lots of details about the apartment + extremely high price tag + 2-4 photos and possibly a link to more photos
4. Fourth post: (Around 1 month later) Same as third post, but with a reduced price. Generally, the reduction is $100-$150 / month. This is the post that finally gets people interested in the apartment.

This whole waiting process is grueling for me. I would like to have an address by tomorrow. The driver will be here at 9 AM to pick up my belongings. How I'm going to explain, "please just drive toward 38103" I don't know.

The other problem, besides having to wait so long because the downtown owners haven't figured out how over-priced their properties are-- Is that they're super unmotivated to move quickly.

One apartment I've been looking at has a realtor managing it. I have been asking her for around a month to check and see what storage options are available in the building. She can't seem to find out, but she still thinks I should move forward with signing a lease with her. Oh, and-- I filled out the application to rent last Thursday and asked her to please process it on Friday because I need an address now. She told me she was doing it right away, and then didn't return any of my messages or phone calls until yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon. How does 6 days equal "right away"? She was also not honest about something... so unfortunately, she's quickly moving off my list.

I've considered just living in an apartment COMPLEX, but unfortunately there aren't many options for those downtown anymore. South Bluffs is the main option and they don't have a single 2-bedroom coming up until September 15th. That's just too late for me. Besides that, they only have two 2-bedroom places coming open then. One is right next to their super noisy pool and the other is directly across from (right next door to) my old apartment. It's just too weird for me to move back into almost the exact same apartment I lived in before. Not to mention, the complexes are over priced right now. Most aren't offering discounts and they raise the rent $100 to $200 per year. Who wants that?

If I would consider another part of town, I'd have way more alternatives. The issue is that I really like downtown. I like it so much that it's what's bringing me back-- and I'll be working downtown. So, it would make virtually no sense to move myself somewhere else just to have to commute to downtown.

And lets put it on the table, I'm not ready to buy. I think the prices downtown are over inflated right now. I'm going to wait at least a year, if not two.

So that leaves me with four options. Here they are:

"Apartment A"

• Free gym (and by free, I mean included in the price that's as much as I pay in Santa Monica)
• Free cable
• Free internet
• Cool young professional vibe
• Storage included
• No balcony
• River view
• Old kitchen

"Apartment B"

• Free cable
• Concrete flooring
• Inexpensive
• Cool artsy vibe
• Many closets
• Old kitchen
• Old bathroom
• No gym
• No balcony

"Apartment C"

• Balcony
• Relatively large
• Newer
• Upscale I've got everything in my life together vibe
• Concrete flooring
• Nice kitchen
• On the top floor
• No gym, no cable
• Expensive

"Apartment D" -- This is the one with the nutty realtor

• Brand new
• Free gym
• Free cable
• Hardwood flooring
• My second home is in downtown vibe + the my landlord is shady or lazy and I can't tell which vibe
• Nice kitchen
• Nice bathroom
• Balcony
• Too small
• No storage
• Random other amenities that are cool, but make it hard to arrange furniture, including: book shelves, fireplace, alarm, kitchen island
• Almost no place to put my office

All these places are within a few blocks of one another. They all have roofs, W/D, secured parking, and appliances.

The biggest challenge now is getting any of these people to return phone calls. None of the managers / owners are all that concerned with getting the freaking things rented out! Nobody is prompt and very few are flexible. There's definitely an expectation that I should BE IN MEMPHIS before I find a place. They want to meet, look it over, chat for a bit. Seriously though, that's not an option. Pick up the phone!

Good News from Santa Monica

I’m proud to announce that I have enthusiastically accepted a position in Memphis!

I recently took a vacation to Memphis to visit friends. While there, I happened to meet the president of a local organization at an event downtown. I told him that I was visiting—contemplating moving back. He asked what I do for a living and I told him that I’m an Internet Marketing Specialist and Consultant in Santa Monica. His response was, “You will never believe this—but I just created that position last week. I have to interview you!”

And, it turns out that meeting was serendipitous--

After further conversations, I attended an event with the same group here in Hollywood at a club appropriately named Memphis. It was over a table there that I made the decision to come back to Tennessee.

This position is aligned with the goals I have been working toward over the last two years—both earning my MBA and starting my own internet marketing business.

Thank you to everyone who has and continues to support me through this exciting, dynamic time!

I will be back in Memphis soon and I’d say that a party is in order!

See you!

Monday Update

Wow, I can't believe it's Monday. Okay, maybe I can. Either way, it's been a whirlwind.

As I mentioned in my last post, on Friday afternoon I got a craving for Santa Barbara. BoRyan and I made the decision at 10 AM on Friday to leave at 1 PM to drive up. The view of course is beautiful... and we saw lots of it while we were sitting in traffic.

Around mid-way through the trip, we passed by a big outlet mall. I'll be the first to say that I really feel outlet malls are a bit of a racket. I mean really... many of the stores carry different merchandise at their outlet store than at their normal store, and some of the stuff isn't even actually on sale. But I went ahead and stopped anyway. The thing is, I really haven't shopped much for clothes over the past 2 years and it's time to stock up. The concept that I haven't shopped in so long is odd... because I write about fashion for my business, and so I'm up on what's in style-- I just haven't been shopping for myself in ages. :-)

Anyhow, the outlet mall was a successful trip. In the two visits there (once on the way to SB and once on the back), I got a pair of pants, a sweater jacket, 2 camisole shirts, 3 dress shirts, and 2 sweaters-- for $200. I must say that I haven't lost my touch-- I know how to find a deal!

Santa Barbara was great! We stayed at a wonderful hotel in the center of the city and were able to walk around and look in all the little shops. We ordered dinner in our room, and watched Trans America with Felecity Huffman. It was great; amazing that they could make Felecity look like a man trying to look like a woman!

In the morning, we woke up early and ate in our room before heading off to the Santa Inez Valley. If you liked the movie Sideways, you'd love the Santa Inez Valley. This is the area where the movie was filmed. Here's a map of the trip that Miles & Jack take in the movie (beware: it's a PDF so it may slow down your browser if you click it): www.santabarbara.com/winecountry/images/sideways-tour-map.pdf

We visited 5 wineries in all. They were-- Rideau, Gainey, Foley, Babcock, and Lincourt.

My favorites were Rideau, Gainey, and Foley this time. I signed up for wine clubs with Rideau and Gainey, so I'll start getting wine delivered around once every other month from them. If you've ever thought of joining a club, it's really fun. While you're a member, you also receive free tastings for you and 1 to 4 friends. "It's free to join and you can cancel at any time." (This reminds me of Time Life books) Anyhow, if you want more information, I'll be glad to pass it along. (Keep me in mind when you fill out the "referral" line on your membership form - ha! :-) )

Oh yes, and one big perk for me is the free wine glasses they give you with the tastings. One vineyard didn't give us glasses, but in all, I made out with 8 new glasses! Half of them are Riedel, which is nice.

We came back late on Saturday evening and I fell asleep early. Sunday morning, we had a training session with Katie. Normally we meet with Katie in a gym, but because it was Sunday morning, we met in a park in West Hollywood. I've never done that before and I'm still hurting. For part of our workout, we ran around on a big path while Katie stood inside. She had a whistle and she would blow it to signifify to start running or to switch from a sprint to a jog. I guess I'm really out of shape because this whole thing wore me out!

Last night, we attended the Gotan Project concert at the Hollywood Bowl. It was a great show-- quite amazing. Unfortunately, I was SO tired from the rest of the weekend that I think I slept through about half of the show. I think everyone else enjoyed it-- we went with 6 friends, including a friend from Spain who was visiting us this week.

Today, I'm just wrapping things up here and preparing to make my big announcement...

Oh my!

So, I do have an announcement, but-- not enough time to go into it now.

BoRyan and I got the hankering to go to Santa Barbara and the Santa Inez Valley this weekend at around 10 AM this morning. By 1 PM, we were on our way!

This is where I'm typing this blog from: andaluciasb.com. OH MY!

Tomorrow we're going wine tasting around Santa Inez... (think Sideways movie locale...)

See you!

Pause - Temporarily

If you read my blog yesterday, you'll know what I'm talking about-- I've paused my big campaign for at least 24 hours. I'll be back with an update ASAP!

Thanks.

Beach Complaints

Alright, so first of all, I know before I start that it's a little silly to be complaining about things that I don't like about the beach. At least I'm close to the beach; I know, I know...

So, ANYWAY-- when I moved to California two years ago, I bought these things from Red Envelope called steady sticks. They're these little things you stick into the sand to help hold your wine and wine glasses. Since CA is the wine capital of the US, I assumed these sticks would be p*e*r*f*e*c*t!

Here's a picture of the steady sticks:

Unfortunately though, it wasn't a week after I'd arrived in CA, I started hearing rumors that taking alcohol of any kind to the beach is illegal.

I couldn't believe it. I had heard that everyone in CA was super liberal and compared to TN, CA seemed to have less strict laws around alcohol. In TN, you can't sell anything other than beer in a grocery store for example. In CA, you can get wine and hard liquor at any grocery store.

Well, today I was thinking about how nice it would be to take a drive down to Malibu, to make a picnic, and to finally try out those 2 year old steady sticks that are still in the box. We do after all have a membership to a California vineyard's wine club and the wine is beginning to stack up. (I know, I know... life's rough.)

Anyway, so I logged on to the City of Malibu's web site and found that there are all SORTS of things outlawed from the beach. Here's a list:

• Smoking
• Fires
• Barbecues
• Alcohol
• Nude sunbathing
• Dogs

So, not that I would want to do any of those things other than drink wine, but that's a lot of rules! What happened to all of those images in my head of people running their dogs along the beach? People having a cookout or bonfire with friends? Casually sipping wine and watching the sun set over the water?

I mean really, how boring! In conclusion, the sticks are staying in their Red Envelope box. I guess that I may just have to try them out in the mud along the Mississippi!

(P.S. Phillip, if I were going to participate in FU Friday, this would be my post!)

Customer Service Praise

Okay, with all of the bad customer service experiences I've written about-- it's time that I give a positive experience.

I have been using my bank since 2001 and I LOVE them. It just doesn't get much better when it comes to customer service.

I remember being able to just stop in and sit at my account rep's desk anytime I had any question. She would give me free checks and anytime I have had a problem, they were right there to fix it, no questions asked. For example, the few times I have had fees on my account, I've asked about them and they were removed immediately-- even if it was my fault.

Most recently, I have a new account rep who just goes above and beyond what is necessary at all. This is why--

Before entering grad school, I had one of those accounts with lots of bells and whistles. This was in big part because of all the money I was saving so that I could quit my job and go to grad school.

Since entering grad school in Malibu, as you can imagine, my account balance has slowly dropped. I started to notice fees on my account from the bank for having my fancy smancy account, so of course I called to see what was up. After explaining my situation, my rep agreed to remove the fees for a few months. Now, keep in mind, I could have switched to a student account or some other free account, but I really wanted to keep my current account-- for free. :-)

On top of helping me out with this, my account representative personally sends me the recepits for any transactions that I make with the bank. And, anytime I have questions, I have his email address and he will e-mail me back right away with an answer.

That's all I'll say. They're just great and they help me each and every time I have a question! Here's a small note that I exchanged with the rep today to show just how nice they are:

From me:
I just wanted to drop you a note to say how much I really appreciate all of your help with my account!
...(portion removed for my privacy!)...
I will have to stop in to say hello in person.
Thanks again!

Response from my rep:
You’re welcome!
I’d love to meet you in person. Stop in when you get a chance!!
Have a great week!

As you can see, this company knows about customer service. If you know me and you'd like a recommendation to a great bank or account rep, let me know.

Roots Rock Reggae Festival

It's lunch time and I'm finally starting to get motivated about my day. I worked for most of the weekend, so I'm having one of those slightly less than productive Mondays.

Anyway, as a reward for my hard work this weekend, I went to a fun concert at the Hollywood Bowl. It's called the Bob Marley Roots Rock Reggae Festival 2006.

The performers included Ziggy Marley (son), Stephen Marley (son), Bunny Wailer (old bandmate), and Ozomatli.

I really enjoyed the show. The most interesting thing besides the music was that almost everyone in the audience had some sort of big spread of food there with them. When I say that, I mean that they brought a bottle of wine and real glass wine glasses, real plates, real silverware, etc. And, the food they had was funny too... it was clear that most everyone came from the same marketing demographic. Instead of just normal potato chips, people had the special kettle cooked variety. Instead of a cookie, one couple had a full on tiny chocolate cake that had multiple layers, icing, etc. I think that just about everyone in the audience had stopped by Whole Foods on the way there to stock up.

Another interesting phenomenon is this thing called "stacked parking." There is so little parking in Hollywood and so many people, that unless you want to pay $40 for valet parking, you opt for stacked parking. Stacked parking costs $15 and essentially, you drive your car into an empty lot of grass. Someone is there to direct you of how to park and they will not allow you to park more than around a foot away from the car next to you. Your car also pretty much has to touch the bumper of the car in front of you and someone is going to park just as close behind you. As you can see, the idea is to fit as many cars together like a puzzle as you can onto one piece of land. Normally, getting out would be a nightmare. Who knows where the people who own the sea of cars around you were sitting in the Hollywood Bowl! Lucky for me, we were only parked in by one layer and I must have had a lucky moment because the only person who decided to leave early was parked on the outside layer in front of us. So, we drove out immediately following the show!!

Before heading home, we drove through In-N-Out for a hamburger and fries. I just LOVE In-N-Out and I had a single with cheese, animal style. :-)

The Roots Rock Reggae Festival will be touring around through the end of August to other cities. For more information, here's their press release and their web site.

Sprint Customer Service Sucks!

GEES! I just had a completely less than desirable customer service experience with Sprint today.

In short, I have a giant cell phone plan so that I won't ever go over on my minutes. And, until last month, I hadn't. But since I was out of town for an entire month of July, I managed to rack up around 50% more minutes than are in my plan. (Note: quite a few of these were for dropped calls.)

When I got the bill, I called a friend of mine who just last month quit Sprint, where he worked as a customer account rep. He gave me all of the tips on how to have the $400+ in additional charges reversed:

• Explain that you've been a customer for 3 years
• You have one of the most expensive plans they offer
• You're a good customer
• In LA, you experience TONS of dropped calls that you never report b/c before this, you've been way under on your minutes
• In Malibu, where you went to school, there were NO Sprint cell phone towers, but you kept Sprint for the entire 15 months you were there, despite this. (Literally, I had to just shut off my phone as soon as I drove through the gates at Pepperdine. Also, there are certain roads in LA that just don't get Sprint service... and certain turns that when you take them, you ALWAYS drop the call.)
• It's outrageous for them to charge you this much for overages

My friend basically talked to me about going through all of these points. He said that at a minimum, they should take 50% off my bill, but he expected that they would take off all of the charges (As a side note, I take responsibility for my excessive calling, but this is just over the top... However, if this is the game that they want to play with customers, then I guess we'll play).

My friend also mentioned that if I had noticed this HUGE bill before it was printed, Sprint sells additional minutes to its customers for $5 / 100 minutes. So, that's $50 instead of $450. Hmm... seems like a deal, no?

Well, for me, no. The customer service person I spoke with claimed to have no power to help AT ALL. She wouldn't sell me minutes for $5 / 100 minutes because I called after my bill was printed. She wouldn't credit my account. She wouldn't do anything!

Finally, I said, "you know, I don't even get good service in LA. The last thing I need is a huge unexpected phone bill too. I guess I should just cancel my account."

She just basically said okay and put me through to the cancellation person. According to my friend, it's this person's JOB to convince you to stay with Sprint. They are allowed to do anything: credit you a huge amount of minutes, give you a free phone, etc. They'll bend over backward to make you happy.

Well, apparently whoever normally does that was off today. The person I spoke with said, "okay, so you want to cancel your account?" To this I replied, "Yes, I have been a good Sprint customer for 3 years. Since I've been in LA, I have tons of dropped calls and no service. The last thing I need is for a bill that is 5 times my normal bill to show up because I used 50% more minutes. This just makes me feel uncomfortable as a customer." And to that, the person who is SUPPOSED to be part of a retention team said, "okay, can you just validate your mailing address for me so I can cancel your account?"

!!!!

GEES! How is is that I'm the person who always pays everything on time or ahead of time and the one time I mess up, customer service could care less if I stick around?

AAAARG. It looks like I'll be getting a new cell phone soon...

Going once, going twice...

(Updated Aug. 12, 2006)

Alright, so not too much new going on here in Santa Monica to report. I did get a haircut today and had lunch at a fun Indian resteraunt called Pradeeps. Right now, I'm sipping excellent Rideau wine and hoping to get out soon. I hear that making smoores is in the agenda tonight, so I'll have to let you know how that goes.

In other news, there are a few online auctions going on now of note.

First, Paris Hilton: She hired a moving company to move and store some of her belongings. Unfortunately, the movers forgot to pay the storage people. Anyway, according to her contract, the stuff can be auctioned off if the bill isn't paid. All the items were sold at a blind auction and now, whoever bought her stuff is now selling it all on eBay using a 3rd party lister. Paris is threatening eBay if they don't take her stuff down, but for now, it's selling. Check it out: http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQfrppZ25QQsassZchironclub

Second, Ted Kaczynski's stuff is also going to be auctioned off soon, per a California court order issued yesterday. Remember him, that crazy unibomber guy? Anyway, the judge is ordering that all of his personal belongings (minus some potentially dangerous writings) be sold on an online auction site. The money is to be given to the victims of his crimes, to help pay off a $15 M debt he has to them. For more details including a list of what will be sold in the next two months, click here: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0811062tedk1.html

Lastly, I almost forgot-- Tori Spelling is auctioning off her own clothes. Since she isn't receiving that much of her dad's estate and because she's apparently about to have a baby, she's decided to do a little house keeping. Check out her auction here: http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQfrppZ25QQsassZsyes

That's it... until next time!

An Inconvenient Truth

Tonight, I saw a very important movie. I hope that just how important it is won't have to be revealed to me in another 50 years as the movie predicts....


Here's a quote from Roger Ebert's review of it: "In 39 years, I have never written these words in a movie review, but here they are: You owe it to yourself to see this film. If you do not, and you have grandchildren, you should explain to them why you decided not to."


The name of this important movie is "An Inconvienent Truth." It is a detailed scientific account of how the world is being affected by global warming. Al Gore has put a lot of work in to break each topic down into bite sized pieces.

To be fair, there were a few political references in the movie that may distract from the environmental message some. Unfortunately, it sounds like the key to solving the existing problem is going to involve politics. So, take that part or leave it... but the real message in the movie is the environment.

I was surprised to learn that our country alone produces more than 30% of the emissions for the entire world... along with many other facts.

Anyway, I'll keep this short. If you haven't seen the movie advertised in your area, visit www.climatecrisis.org. It has a list of all the theatres showing the movie, by state. Go, see it, and let me know what you think!

A pretty good day.

Today was a nice day.

I woke up on time, got up, and got ready. At around 1, BoRyan got the idea that he wanted to get all new bedding for his room, so we headed to Bed, Bath, & Beyond. Luckily, I've always got coupons lying around, so he was able to get 20% off!

After BBB, we started scouring the neighborhoods for pie. I wanted pie last night, but was convinced to skip it at Houston's. :c) I think someone was feeling guilty. Anyway, luckily I was able to call Jessica F., who always knows the best places to go. After we got past my accent (Thai != Pie), she navigated us to a great place in Santa Monica called Bobolu's. It's a Southern / Island feeling sort of a place with home cooked foods and lots of PIE. Although we had both already had breakfast, we shared an eggs Benedict and then we got pie. He had strawberry shortcake and I had coconut praline (essentially coconut cream pie with pecans). It was GREAT!
Afterward, we came home for a few minutes and each had a small lunch before heading over to Dustin's. Dustin graduated from Pepperdine's MBA program today (Congrats!) and was having a barbecue. Of course, I didn't want to be rude, so I had to have a bite there too. He had a GREAT spread! Carne Asada, beans, rice, grated cheese, sour cream, watermelon, and a few other things. I'm thinking he had to have help... it was just perfect and definitely more than one person could throw together after graduation!

Next, we hopped in the car and headed to Parvez Michel's art gallery in Beverly Hills. Parvez loaned his gallery out to a group called StepUp for an exhibit they put on tonight. It was GREAT! StepUp is a non-profit that empowers women; in this case, 13 year old girls. The title of the show was "Seeing the World Through the Eyes of a Teenage Girl." About half of the exhibit was dedicated to the them "When I Am President." Each girl chose a theme that would be her platform when running for president of the United States. Then, they each took photos to represent that platform. All of the pieces of art were on sale and I'm now the lucky owner of a print that will help to support the organization.

The artist who created my piece is named Sophiaya. I'll include an excerpt about her below. If you're interested to learn more or to donate to Step Up, visit www.stepupwomensnetwork.org.

"My name is Sophiaya. I am really outspoken. And sometimes I've gotten into trouble for that.

When I am president, I will create positive media images of women and Muslim Americans. My presidential campaign is about the media and how it affects my life as a Muslim Latino, Asian, American girl. Ever since 9/11, I've been looked at differently. I felt judged for something another person did....

...Through photography class, I have been able to express myself. Before the class, I always felt like I had to be blond and skinny... I'm okay with myself now and I don't care what people think anymore... I look at myself in a better way now.

My first picture is of my shoes. I always wear Converse sneakers, which represent a part of how I see myself and my American, youth culture. When you look at me in my Converse, you probably don't know that I am Muslim, but there are lots of sides to me."

This was a part of what Sophiaya said about her work. If you know me, you know that I also really like Converse shoes and photography.... and I support equal rights for all people, especially women and minorities. Sophiaya's photo seemed just perfect for me and for my collection. I'm so glad that we were able to stop by the gallery. I know the event meant a lot to everyone. Luckily, Sophiaya's mom spotted me buying her photo and she came over to take a picture of me buying her daughter's first work. How cool!

Now, I'm sitting at home, sipping on wine from my favorite vineyard (Rideau) and eating the rest of my pie from earlier.

Goodnight!