Does it get your attention? Does it make you want to order?
How does this grab you:
I’ll take it down when I have 5 sales.
That’s less than half of one percent of the number of people who read the site every day.
Tell your friends. Tell your family. Tell your book club. Order copies to send to your local newspaper, so they write about it, so it sells copies, so I take the ad down.
Hey. Everyone with a blog here on Modern Evil, feel free to remove the HitBox code from your templates. I removed it from the main pages and from FYTH, and if you need help, just let me know and I’ll look into it.
Yeah. They seriously don’t track anything anymore, so it don’t matter. Plus, 1&1 tracks everything for me anyway.
So, there you go.
Okay, so it looks like I’m booked solid on Saturday and Monday, but I’ll be in town all day Sunday if anyone wants to make plans. Even simple ones, like – I want to see 50 First Dates and perhaps another, such as The Big Bounce or something I’m forgetting. Perhaps we could see it together. I’ll “buy” you a free popcorn!
Or perhaps you’re interested in something more rousing, such as .. board games? I’d gladly join you for a rollicking afternoon of tabletop fun!
Or maybe you’re throwing an all-day drunken orgy slash fuck-a-thon. I say the more the merrier, and I’ll be glad to add to your post-valentine’s-day orgasms.
Or perchance you’re the type to go for … uhhh… something cheap … come on, Teel, you can think of something … not bowling; that’s pretty expensive these days … uhh… perhaps getting together for a meal? We all gotta eat anyway, may as well eat in good company!
If any of these things (or your own ideas) seem interesting, I’m looking for things to do this Sunday (2/15/2004 by your calendar) in the GMPhoenix area. Throw me a line, send me an email, give me a call, whatever, but let’s get together and do something. Whee!
**********
This message was added 5/4/2004:
**********
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/
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.
IF YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY SIGNED UP, DO NOT SIGN UP FOR EZLAPTOP.COM.
(Also take a look at this post, with lots of comments and updates.)
I recommend you read the original version of Luke chapter 2 for yourself (linked above).
Just a quick summary today:
So, the Romans are doing a census, and Mary and her husband-to-be Joseph go the 6miles up the road to Bethlehem to register. Everyone else in the house of David is in Bethlehem to register, too, so there’s no room at the inn, and they stay in a manger. They probably weren’t the only ones. Mary gives birth to Jesus.
An angel of the Lord appeared to some shepherds in a nearby field and told them a Saviour, Christ the Lord, had been born. The angel told them where and how to find the Saviour. The heavenly host appeared briefly to sing of God’s glory. The shepherds went to see the baby Saviour and spread the word of what they had seen. Mary was unphased by the shepherds appearance, or what they said.
On the eighth day they went to circumsize Jesus, and they ran into Simeon. Simeon, you see, had been shown by the Holy Spirit that he would see the “Lord’s Christ” before he died, and was basically waiting around in the temple to see him so he could die. Simeon was “Moved by the Spirit” when he saw Jesus, sang a song praising God that he could finally die having seen the Saviour, then prophesized about Jesus’ life to come.
That same day another prophet, Anna, who had been widowed after 7 years marriage and who then spent the rest of her days fasting and praying in the Temple until she was 84 years old, came up to Mary and Joseph and Jesus and gave thanks to God and talked to everyone around who was hoping that God would send redemption to Jerusalem.
Finally, Mary and Joseph returned from Jerusalem, where the circumsicion et al had taken place, to their home in Nazareth. Jesus grew up a bit.
When He was 12 and the whole family went to the Feast of the Passover in Jerusalem, Jesus stayed behind when His family began the trip home. After a day’s travelling, Mary and Joseph noticed He wasn’t with them, and they turned back to try to find Him. Another day’s journey back, and a third day searching and they found Him studying at the Temple with the rabbis and biblical scholars. They asked Him why He’d treated them that way, and He asked them why they didn’t look for Him in His “Father’s house”. Then he was obedient again and went home with them and all was well and he grew up some more.
**********
Yep. That’s Luke chapter 2. Quickly, anyway.