Category: Uncategorized

I was woken a little while ago… yes, I’ve been sleeping… yes, my body is sure I should still be sleeping to try to take care of this … sickness… faster… but I was woken by thunder and lightning and daylight. I could see blue skies out the window and scattered light clouds, but the thunder was literally shaking the room and startlingly loud. I walked over to the window and if I craned around I could see that way up and to the left was a dark mass, and then the thunder again.

Seconds later, water began to fall from the heavens all around me in sheets. It rained and rained and rained down, fast and furious, and although at has begun to slow somewhat, it is still pouring. We need all the moisture we can get around here, and we were actually expecting the clouds to open up yesterday at this time, but this is good. Rain is good.

Oh yeah, and the sunlight still streams through my window. Must be a hole in the clouds.

Not well… I’ve already slept three hours this evening, and I feel like I need to go straight to sleep again after I finish writing this… though I’ll probably write at least a couple of pages to Laura before I pass out. I’m so tired… and I think I’m getting sick. Got the runny nose and the sore throat and chills and … the opposite of chills… but not in flashes, so … I guess I don’t know the word for feeling like it’s too warm in a 70 degree room.

Anyway, yeah. Had a birthday Sunday, now I’m 25. Had a great dinner at the Casino in Payson, compliments of Debbie. Went down to Phoenix Monday evening, watched Run Ronnie Run and Roger Dodger on DVD (rented), then Tuesday went shopping, got some new jeans (Hooray for pants!), saw Underworld with my brother and sister and father (I liked it! I don’t care what other people think! But despite all the other things, the moment the characters started using “Abomination” as a noun to describe a being that is both vampire and werewolf, I understood White Wolf’s suit, in part), did some more shopping and bought Quicksilver (Neal Stephenson’s new book) and some red and black paint (I run out of these pretty fast lately…) and a used copy of The Thin Red Line on DVD from Zia. This morning came back to Pine and got some heavy lifting done; we’re making a lot of progress towards clearing the space for the new home. Zoe, if you want that stainless sink, we’ve come to it in the pile and while it has not come up yet, its fate will soon be decided – Dad, when you see this, comment with a price, if you remember the sink I’m talking about.

Anyway.

Have I mentioned Laura lately? I keep meaning to talk about her, but I’m never qure quite what to say here. I mean, I think she’s great, we’ve been corresponding more by phone lately… probably because while her letters arrive from Spain within 3-4 days while mine get to her not sooner than a week after I send them, sometimes partially shredded, and there are two missives I sent on 9/8/2003 and 9/11/2003 which have not yet arrived, while one I sent on 9/15/2003 has just arrived. I do not know what to do. I know this must be very frustrating for Laura. I know it is frustrating for me. I know I’m using enough postage; I walk in and talk to a person every time, have each letter weighed and electronically stamped, making sure it gets into the hands of a postal employee with their word that it has enough postage… I’m not just sticking 37cent stamps on international letters and hoping for the best. For 80 cents an ounce, I wish they’d at least get there.

Laura will be in the US tomorrow, and for a few days, to attend the wedding of her cousin. It’s a little frustrating to know she’ll be walking around on the same little island as me instead of one so far away, but that she’ll still be quite far away. This little island called America is a pretty big one. Then she’ll fly back to Eurasia, to Madrid, to be 3500 miles away instead of just 1875 miles…. an 1875 miles which is closer than the 2000 she normally is in the US, but still too, too far away. My arms are not long enough to reach her, to hold her, to hug her. My smile is not bright enough to warm her. Not from so far away.

Yeah. Well. That’s how it goes. Maybe in a few years I’ll have my act together and get out to Europe like I’ve always wanted to… by then Laura should be conveniently on another continent, I bet. But hopefully by then we’ll at least have met. I’m pushing to see her as soon as I can, actually. Silly thing about actually wanting to see the woman I’m in a relationship with in person.

I’m so cold and tired and this post is taking much longer than I expected. I’m going to bed.

And no, I don’t know why I haven’t been posting lately. Sue me.

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This message was added 5/4/2004:
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I have been contacted by the operator of http://www.pearlsofwealth.com/ezlaptop/ regarding this page. Since she operates a program that goes by the same name as the program that operated at EZlaptop.com and EZlaptop.net, and because her program is in no way affiliated with EZlaptop.com except by name, she feels that this site, which informs people about the ongoing saga of EZlaptop.com/EZlaptop.net and offers a location for all the people who have been affected by the scam that ran at EZlaptop.com and EZlaptop.net, does not deserve to exist. I disagree.

But, I am more than happy to make it clear that the comments expressed here by me are not intended to be regarding her program at http://www.pearlsofwealth.com/ezlaptop/ – I mean only to rever to the now-defunct program that existed at EZlaptop.com and EZlaptop.net, and the problems it has caused.

I am adding this statment to the top, middle, and bottom of both of my pages regarding EZlaptop.com/EZlaptop.net, as a courtesy to the operator of http://www.pearlsofwealth.com/ezlaptop/ – I do not want there to be any confusion – any negative comments made here are NOT about the program at http://www.pearlsofwealth.com/ezlaptop/

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This message was added 2/11/2004:
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IF YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY SIGNED UP, DO NOT SIGN UP FOR EZLAPTOP.COM.

I cannot say for sure yet whether they are entirely a scam, so everyone who already has an account (that hasn’t been cancelled yet), please keep clicking those links – when you get to 150, let us know what happens!

I just had my account forcibly closed.

I suspected that I had too many referrers or invalid links or something, because my credits seemed too high, so I emailed ezlaptop.com and asked if there was anything wrong, and if so, would they remove the extra credits? I made it clear that I did not believe myself to have done anything wrong and that I wanted to support their company and maintain a positive relationship and an open account.

Their response was to close my account.

Now, I can’t be sure of what happened (I think someone may have used illegal links or I may have had more than 10 referrals, and that’s what I was emailing to find out), but instead of letting me know WHAT was wrong or trying to resolve it, ezlaptop.com just closed my account.

I tried emailing ezlaptop.com several times, discussing the matter in a rational way, making it clear that while I had a guess as to what might have happened, I certainly didn’t break any of their rules myself. I tried discussing the matter as it relates to promoting a positive customer experience and creating an environment of positive customer service, but ezlaptop.com made it clear they are not interested in their customers’ interests or having a positive relationship with the people who are their source of their income.

Whether or not they ever actually send anyone a laptop, because ezlaptop.com is not interested in you beyond your $5, you should NOT do business with them. We can only teach these companies that treating people fairly is what we want by not giving our money to unfair companies.

ezlaptop.com changed its policies to prevent having to give out laptops: On the website, even right now, it encourages you (even on the Terms of Use page) to try to accumulate credits via referrals to reach the (currently) 150 credit goal faster. In fact, when they estimate how long ezlaptop.com expects it to take for someone to earn enough credits, they say that that goal can only be reached by getting a lot of referral credits. ezlaptop.com recently modified its Terms of Use so that when you reach 150 points and try to get your laptop, any credits earned from referrals beyond the first 10 referrals will be removed from your account and you will no longer have the required credits, if you had more than 10 referrals.

There is no way to know how many referrals you have had until you reach 150 credits and get your account closed for having too many referrals. I emailed to ask how many referrals I had, and had my account closed without even reaching 150 credits. If there was anything else wrong with my account, I don’t know it for sure; ezlaptop.com wouldn’t tell me. They just closed my account.

I have done nothing but try to promote a positive reputation for ezlaptop.com in the past, but they had never done anything wrong to me before. Now they have shown that not only are they uninterested in having a positive relationship with their customers, but they are looking for any chance they can get to close people’s accounts.

I will be emailing this message to everyone who has commented here.

IF YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY SIGNED UP, DO NOT SIGN UP FOR EZLAPTOP.COM.

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Original message follows:
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Yes, it’s true, I am sometimes a schmuck.

For instance, right after buying my novel, Zoe linked me to ezlaptop.com, as an option to try to replace my broken laptop for $5.

IF YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY SIGNED UP, DO NOT SIGN UP FOR EZLAPTOP.COM.

I get hundreds of SPAM every day. Actually, I also click through quite a few of them every day because they are funny or actually offer something I am interested in, usually to find that the links are bad, and no, I can’t get my allergies enlarged or get debt reduction without a prescription. Sigh.

IF YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY SIGNED UP, DO NOT SIGN UP FOR EZLAPTOP.COM.

So, for a $5 signup fee (this is like buying 5 lottery tickets, right? It’s a gamble) and 1, 2, or 3 emails a week (I opted for three, what the heck), each of which contains a link that must be followed in order to earn ‘credits’ (1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 credits per link), once I ‘earn’ enough ‘credits’ (150 right now, but their TOS says they can change that at any time without notice), they’ll just ship me a free VAIO laptop. Wheee!

IF YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY SIGNED UP, DO NOT SIGN UP FOR EZLAPTOP.COM.

Now, if they don’t close up shop and run off with my $5 before then, I’ll go ahead and advertise my book through them; their rates are reasonable, and I know people will click through. Anyone else can recommend some ‘captive audience’ ad click-through ‘services’ … preferably those that have already been verified are not scams… that I could advertise Lost and Not Found via? I’d like to get the word out to as many people as possible, when the time comes.

And now, to sleep, for in the morning I must wake early to do some hard labor before a day of retail followed by a little more hard labor. Happy birthday to me!

IF YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY SIGNED UP, DO NOT SIGN UP FOR EZLAPTOP.COM.

(Seriously, click the banner and gamble your $5. Everyone who signs up from my banner gets me 2 extra ‘credits’. It’ll be like a little mini birthday present for me, that might turn out to be worth a laptop, if they find enough advertisers and you can stomach clicking through their links three times a week.)

Well, I was just playing on that CBG line, but it was a sweet birthday gift. Zoe and I were discussing whether he would get me the new David Bowie CD for my birthday or if I would prefer something else, and … Well, let me put it this way:

6 minutes before midnight, he purchased a copy of my novel (and a preMEum T-Shirt).

Sure, I reduced the markup to one cent for the guy, but I sold a published copy of my book to someone before I was 25, and I made money doing it. Hooray! This is the best birthday present I’ve received (or am likely to receive) this year! (Sorry, Laura; your gift was good, and even though with yours I GET a book and with his HE gets a book, his will be spoken about for years to come.)

I don’t know why I’m taking so long to post this. I just wanted to say thanks to Zoe.

Oh, and I’ll be changing the preMEum merchandise on Monday instead of the day before yesterday (Friday). Go wild.

Yep. My old shoes … well, the soles were detatching from the shoes at an alarming rate. But I guess that’s what you get when you buy Nike; shoes made my children in sweatshops – how good can they be?

Anyway, rather than tennis shoes I got some reasonably comfortable shoes with a little more ankle support and waterproof (to a degree – they probably won’t like knee-deep snows later in the winter), which is nice, sue to all the puddles I seem to walk around in up in Pine.

Here’s a picture:

(Click to enlarge)

Yep. Shoes. Oh, and due to a sale the sales associate failed to mention, I got them for almost $20 less than I was expecting to pay, which made me oh-so-happy. Now instead of being at the absolute limit of what I could afford, they were very reasonable. And I don’t have to worry as much about my bank account. SO, yeah. Now, I’m going to drink some water, and then maybe write some more.