My Happy Life

I didn't get to sleep until 5a.m. this morning. Two things I have the most difficulty handling are money problems and conflict. I'm embroiled in a situation that is chock full of both.

When I moved out of my apartment end of December, I hired movers that I couldn't afford. I figured I could spend money set aside for March rent and replenish that when my security deposit was returned.

Unfortunately, it was not returned. Even though Texas landlords are required to return deposits within thirty days, mine didn't.

Happy birthday to me
Happy birthday to me
Happy birthday to meee-eee
Happy birthday to me

Greg Bueno is stalking me.

He isn't even attending SXSW Interactive, but every day I seem to bump into him. Saturday he follows me to Schlotzky's, under the pretense of meeting somebody for lunch. Sunday I forget exactly where I saw him—or what his lame excuse was. Monday he's outside the convention center, telling me, "I'm going to listen to a friend's presentation." Yeah, that's the ticket.

I was starting to get irritated, and then suddenly today, nothing. Haven't seen hide nor hair of him.

I'm a little concerned. I hope he's alright.

My theory is that since his cover is now blown, they've sent in a replacement.

Day two of SXSW was much happier than the previous day. This time I remembered where I parked.

I already discussed some of the great panels I attended and some of the interesting people I met. It all added up to make one great day.

Plus, I got to say "hi!" to Molly Ivins.

Onward to day two of SXSW. Day one ended not with a bang, but a sloosh.

At the last minute I got pressed into service as a panelist for the Can You Build a Company From Free Code session. I was glad to help, although I have been more suited for a panel about not making money from open source software.

After that panel, the last of the day, I hooked up with a crew of local ruffians to find a happy hour. We headed out towards 5th Street. The gray skies started drizzling. The battle tank laptop on my shoulder started dragging. I thought it would be a good idea to split off, find my car, drop off the laptop, grab a jacket, and rejoin the group at the club.

An hour later I was wandering around Convention Center area in the rain, trying to remember where I'd parked that morning. By that time my clothes were soaked and my laptop weighed another twenty pounds. I was getting very cold, wet, and grumpy.

I ducked out of the rain and phoned my girlfriend at home. "Help!" She drove down and got me. We had a quick dinner and then set out to retrace my steps that morning. Naturally we found it almost immediately. I suppose I could have rejoined the evening activities, but by that point I just wanted to go home and crawl into bed.

I hope that doesn't happen again. Today I made good note of where I parked. I'm over at the corner of Third and....errrr....something.

I know I've been terribly quiet lately. I've been too distracted to write much. This month, I left my long time South Austin apartment and relocated to the wrong side of the river. I've been busy with packing and moving and recovering from moving. Now I'm busy looking at my boxed-up belongings, wondering what the hell I'm going to do with them.

Remember this entry where AT&T customer service gave me the runaround? Remember how I had a nagging suspicion they lied just to get me off the phone?

Well, yeah, they did. Just tried the phone card. They didn't fix anything.

My AT&T prepaid phone card stopped working. I punched in the PIN and it just said, "For assistance contact customer service." No indication what the problem is--let alone that there is a problem.

Can anybody please explain to me why Sprint PCS can offer the ability to add options to my cellular phone plan--and make it as simple as clicking a button on a web page--but cannot delete no-longer-wanted options? They say the computer won't let them and I need to switch to a new plan.

Under this new plan my basic monthly charge goes up $5/month, but the total goes down $5/month (because I now can drop the unwanted option), I get a ton more minutes and they said they'd waive the committment to a long-term agreement. In the end, I'm satisfied with that.

Still, this seems like a darn inept way to run a railroad.

I just phoned SBC and asked them to terminate my phone service. Come Monday, I will be without wired phone service. Between cable Internet and cellular phone, it just wasn't being used for much. It was costing me about $35/month for this underused service. I can throw a small part of that at an upgraded cellular plan and pocket the rest.

You could say that SBC spam cost them a customer. The final straw that prompted the cancelation was their $5 late charges. My bill paying cycle is out of sync with their bill sending cycle, so I almost always got hit with the late charge. This irritated me greatly.

Some time back, I used their electronic billing and it worked great. I'd be notified when my bill was ready, and jump over to my bill paying service to schedule a payment. Then, however, they started spamming my email with the most ridiculous crap, like promotions for the San Antonio Spurs. I phoned corporate offices in Dallas, but they failed to stop the spam. I ultimately got it to stop by canceling the on-line billing service and having them purge my email address from their databases.

So I'm thinking that maybe if they hadn't misused my address for spamming, I probably still would be a customer. I would have still had the ebill service, I wouldn't have gotten slapped with the late charges and I wouldn't have gotten pissed off at them. (The business office person worked hard to keep my business, including offering to rebate a couple months' late charges.)

You know, at one time giving up your land line was a terribly heroic thing. I suspect you all are very blase about it all. I know I am.