revjim.net

September, 2006:

I’ve got the poet’s touch

Sep 29th, 2006
by Jim Reverend.
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There are at least 15 projects and a handful of other small tasks running around in my head right now. I apologize if this is scattered, in coherent, or utterly banal.

I decided to simultaneously put the world at risk and satisfy my own sense of accomplishment by purchasing a cheap soldering iron. Wednesday night, Jess and I put my lack of skill to the test in order to build some custom cabling for a lighting project I’m working on. I quickly learned a few things about myself.

* I cannot see very close with my glasses/contacts on.
* The distance at which I must hold a soldering iron in order to feel comfortable that I won’t singe my own eyelashes is greater than the distance at which I can see without my glasses/contacts on.
* I have no hand-eye coordination.
* I have very poor depth perception.

Regardless of these four factors, Jess and I managed to build 6 custom cables. The only mistake we made (over and over again) was to forget to put the housing on the wire before soldering the end on. This meant we’d have to unsolder the end, put the housing on the wire, and then solder the end on again. If you take that in to account, we made at least 10 cables.

Some time ago I mentioned that “Justin”:http://gentlenews.com/ had agreed to help me with a larger soldering project. Things changed and I learned yesterday that I needed that project complete by this weekend — tomorrow — and not by next weekend — 7 more days from now. As stupidly confident as ever in my own abilities to “DIY”, I took matters into my own hands and begged pleaded made promises to that I can’t possibly keep enlisted Jess’ help once again. Together, we managed to perform the unsoldering and resoldering of the feet on four flash units and they all still work. And I only managed to shock myself once.

*Her*: What are the rules for writing a Haiku?

*Me*: 3 lines. 5 syllables, then 7 then 5.

*Her*: Thanks dear.

*Me*: I don’t know why I retain useless stuff like that in my head, but I do.

*Her*: To help out people like me who can’t retain anything.

*Me*: Maybe I can use it to get laid. Don’t you just want to fuck me now?

*Her*: Oh absolutely. Now if you’d just start writing in iambic pentameter…

*Me*: Don’t tempt me. I’ll go all the way to sonnet and then ask which kind?

*Her*: You just said sonnet. I think my panties got a little wet.

*Me*: I’ve got the poet’s touch. It’s deep, rhythmic, and alliterative.

*Her*: That’s why I love you.

– A conversation over Text Message

Jess gets off work tonight around 7pm and we need to do a bit of housework. Outside of that, Jess and I are without plans for this evening. Got any?

Tomorrow morning we’re heading out to Bedford for breakfast and then we’re going to my dad’s house. I’m going to help him fix the fence, and then we’re going to screw around with photo lighting all afternoon. Around 5pm I have a meeting with two people for a future photo session — a commitment ceremony in the middle of the woods! Afterwards, I’m heading back to my dad’s place and we’re going to take my sister and her fiancee out for some very artsy engagement photographs. Late that evening we’ll head home.

Sunday, my parents and my sister and her fiancee are coming over in the morning to our place to do some more engagement photos out in the fields near my house and then, after that, some studio work. Then, around 4pm Nic and Emily are coming over. Emily is getting a hair cut next weekend and is coming to have some photographs taken before it changes drastically. We’ll do a few hours of studio work, then a little bit of location work, and then we’ll head out for dinner.

I need to find a local source *today* for some Vivitar VP-1s and an umbrella adapter with two shoe mounts. Yeah, I know. “Good Luck,” right? We’ll see.

I’m uber stressed now about “Myschievia”:http://revjim.net/2006/09/14/attending-myschievia/ — mostly my grand plan to build the “Myschievia Portrait Studio”:http://revjim.net/2006/09/15/myschievia-portrait-studio/. Including this weekend, we have 6 days left to finish planning and preparing both for Jess and myself and for the Studio. I have all the stuff required to meet our needs while we’re there aside from the perishables which will only take a quick trip to the grocery store to complete. I have about 4 different plans for the studio, each requiring varying degrees of difficulty to produce. However, I have yet to decide on a plan, finish the planning, buy the materials, and then do a test build of it all in my backyard/driveway/garage/living room.

I figure I need to do it *RIGHT* or not do it at all. At first I thought I might be able to get by with a fancy sign, a menu, some flooring and a pile of equipment. Now I’m thinking I need to make it feel as much like an honest to goodness studio as possible. What do you think?

Alas, I am hungry now. I’m off to get lunch with Nic and hit up a camera store or five.

back to where I was

Sep 29th, 2006
by Jim Reverend.
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Having an MP3 player — even if only for a week now — has made a huge impact on my life. Music used to play a very large role in my life. I was one of those guys with a thick book of CDs in the car, the best stereo I could afford in my bedroom, and a discman in my bag for the times when I was away from both. Being a music lover and a technophile, it only took one glimpse into the world of MP3s to have me hooked. Oddly enough, this marked the decline in my ability to enjoy music.

Back in those days, MP3 based music was only found on computers. This meant that the only place I could listen to this music was directly in front of my computer and even then it got increasingly difficult to manage. Sure, I burned CDs from time to time to bring into the car, but that was too time consuming to do regularly. Slowly, the amount of time I spent listening to music declined. My exposure to new music dwindled even more and I all together stopped buying new CDs for at least 2 years.

When portable MP3 players started to hit the market they were expensive, buggy, cumbersome, and huge. I wanted nothing to do with them. Further into my musicless cave I sunk. Then MP3 players became affordable, easy to use, and easy to carry. But by this time so long out of the loop, I wasn’t interested. I’m not sure what sparked me into wanting one, but now that I have an MP3 player, that whole world is coming back to me and it makes me very emotional to even think about what I’ve missed.

And I was strong, strong in the sun
I thought I’d see when day is done
Now I’m weaker than the palest blue
Oh, so weak in this need for you.

– Place to Be / Nick Drake

I like the iPod as a device. It operates well and it works as I expect it to (except when it “freaks out”:http://revjim.net/2006/09/26/i-broke-my-ipod/ as it has 3 times now).

The ear buds I have are uncomfortable, the cord is too long, and they fall out of my ears a lot. But they work, they sound ok, and, if needed, I can still hear the world around me with them in.

The FM Transmitter I have is not located in a good spot which makes the iPod almost impossible to read while driving. But, it sounds decent enough, only rarely gets any static, and I am able to pause, skip and, most importantly, repeat without even looking at the thing. If I run my hand the wrong way along the side of it, I get a nice 12V kick in pants. I’m still convinced I’m going to spill a drink all over the damn thing one of these days. But, until I do, as inconvenient as it is, it gets the music out of my iPod and into my ears while driving, and that what really matters.

Yesterday afternoon I drove home with the windows down, wind in my hair, and Nick Drake singing to me softly. Jess and I went jogging last night while I listened to a mix of music that mostly included Ani DiFranco’s newer stuff. This morning it was a mix of Sublime and Soul Coughing again with the windows down despite how chilly it was outside. I’ve also learned that I like Joseph Arthur and Death Cab for Cutie.

return like a tennis pro

Sep 28th, 2006
by Jim Reverend.
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Unhappy with the “cup holder FM transmitter”:http://revjim.net/2006/09/26/in-record-time/ I picked up a few days ago, I’ve been on the hunt for a better solution ever since. I’m about to give up, though.

The problem with the cupholder transmitter is that it holds the iPod too low to see and operate and, once you pull it out of the transmitter, it stops broadcasting. So, I either need something that stays attached to the iPod, or something that mounts higher. Thinking it would be cool to have something attached to the iPod so that it could be passed around the car and easily moved from vehicle to vehicle, I went in that direction.

A few days ago I went into Best Buy and picked up the “Griffin iTrip Nano”:http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/itripnano/. As much as I hate uni-taskers, this device accomplished exactly the task I wanted, no more, no less, so I figured it was the right thing to go with. Nope. Unlike their website, the packaging gave no indication that this product was for a 1st gen iPod Nano and didn’t work with a 2nd gen nano. I walked right back in and returned it.

Why would this matter? Well, it seems that apple decided to move the connection port and the headphones port just a little bit. So, anything that depends on the location of those ports in order to attach to the nano will find itself unable to attach to a 2nd gen nano.

So today, at Frys, I was on the hunt again. I found a device that indicated it was for a Nano. Again it didn’t indicate 1st or 2nd generation. I noticed that, unlike the iTrip Nano, it didn’t have a headphones connection. So, I hoped with all my might that Apple only moved one of the two ports and hadn’t moved the larger one in relation to the rest of the Nano. The date on the packaging said 2006, and that gave me hope, so I went with it. $80 and 3 minutes later, I realize that it, too, doesn’t fit, and promptly return it.

The time and energy I’m wasting on trying to find the correct solution to what must be a common problem is ridiculous. But that’s not even what upsets me the most. The reason I decided to stick with the iPod instead of bringing it back had to do with market share and availability. This realization came to a head when I was at Frys the first time. There was an entire end-cap devoted to iPod brand products. Then, following that, an entire side of an aisle devoted to things that go with your iPod. In contrast, half of the other side of the aisle was occupied with all the other players as well as all the accessories sold for them. iPod has so many accessories available that I figured it would be easy to get what I was looking for later. Was I ever wrong?!

Here’s the thing. If I’m going to be stuck having the Nano secured in one location in the car, and also stuck only being able to use the transmitting equipment in the car, then why bother transmitting at all when I can just hard-wire it? So, I’m going to look around online for one more solution. If I can’t find anything that specifically says 2nd generation Nano, then I’m going to return the cup holder transmitter and just go with a dash mounted device cradle, a 12V power charger, and a plain old headphones out to RCA in.

I broke my iPod

Sep 26th, 2006
by Jim Reverend.
3 comments

I broke my iPod. Yes, already. I was driving down the road while it was playing through my car speakers. Then suddenly, it stopped playing music.

Mostly, I was rating music. Since none of my music is rated, I’ve been running it on shuffle so I can get a good mix and rate music as I come across it. Sometimes I’ll quickly rate the track and move to the next. My fingers are still not too good at operating the slip-and-slide jog-wheel thing, so sometimes I mash the wrong button or I go up and down with the rating stars until I get it just right. Other times, I like the song so much I just let it play through.

When it stopped playing altogether I assumed I had paused it on accident so I unpaused it, which didn’t help. Then I turned it on and then off, which didn’t help. Then I unplugged it from the FM Transmitter and plugged it back in. Still no good. I decided to wait until I was parked to continue fiddling with it.

Once stationary I realized that it thought it was playing music, but the music would never actually start playing. The little progress bar wouldn’t move, and the timer to the end of the song wouldn’t count down. If I waited long enough it would eventually bounce me back to the main menu.

To Reset an iPod

  1. Toggle the Hold switch on and off. (Slide it to Hold, then turn it off again.)
  2. Press and hold the Menu and Select buttons until the Apple logo appears, about 6 to 10 seconds. You may need to repeat this step.

At this point, I was ready to just throw my $250 paper weight that isn’t even heavy enough to weight paper across the parking lot. But, I didn’t. Later I did a search on the Internet and found a site talking about how to reset some other iPods. I decided to try it on my too, and it worked, thankfully.

I didn’t abuse it. I wasn’t doing anything that wasn’t intended. I was drinking the kool-aid, living large, and enjoying the product. iPods just hate me, I guess.

in record time

Sep 26th, 2006
by Jim Reverend.
1 comment

Yesterday I met Jess for a hot Pho Lunch Date in Carrollton. I hadn’t been in quite a while and it was sorely missed. We need to make this, at least, a bi-weekly occurrence.

Afterwards, I dug around in the iPoddery section at Fry’s for a few hours. I picked up a cup-holder style FM Transmitter for “my iPod”:http://revjim.net/2006/09/25/i-hate-my-ipod-nano/. How very clever. Too bad it “doesn’t quite work for me”:http://revjim.net/2006/09/26/potentially-illegal-range/.

I also picked up a 1GB mini-SD card for $14 to cram into my “new life partner”:http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?p=781 when she arrives tomorrow. I’m hoping that she will serve me in all the ways that I had hoped my “soon to be ex”:http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?p=453 would. Things started out well for us, really. But a poor set of core features, a host of bugs that would not be exterminated, and a lack of upgrades from her creator crushed her spirit. So now she’s just utterly ordinary. Plus she has a case of the downs and she’s fat. *AND* large.

I have a coworker that shares in the support of one half of the nation with me (basically, everything south and west of New Jersey). Yesterday he told me that he’d be out of the office over “Myschievia Weekend”:http://revjim.net/2006/09/14/attending-myschievia/. I had been intending to ask off for that Friday and Monday, I just hadn’t gotten around to it. Generally I don’t like to end up with both of us gone at the same time but it shouldn’t be too big of a deal if it’s only two days. There are others that can fill in in an emergency and two days isn’t too long to wait for most non-emergencies that need a helpful hand from me.

I made my drive home from work in record time — almost 40 minutes on the dot. After spending a little time catching up on Jess and her day, we had dinner and then went for a nice jog as the sun was setting. I will be in a much better position to succeed at the the new lifestyle I’m slowly lining myself up for if I lose 20 pounds or so. So much so that I’m considering it a requirement. Before now, losing weight was always optional. Its one of the few changes that I’m actually looking forward to.

I spent the evening editing pictures and trying to set up my iPod while Jess took a bath, talked to her friend Mel, and wrote some poetry. Afterwards we watched “CSI: Miami” which is now sooo terrible that I absolutely love it. Then around 11:30 or so we went to bed.

potentially illegal range

Sep 26th, 2006
by Jim Reverend.
2 comments

I spent a few hours at Fry’s Electronics yesterday digging through their selection of iPoddery looking for a method to get my iPod to play over my car stereo speakers. The sales person there claimed that if I chose an FM Transmitter with a higher frequency I’d be able to pick up the signal farther away. According to him, if my iPod was in Dallas and I got one of the high frequency transmitters, I could pick it up as far away as Carrollton. Nice to know. I’m pissed though. I don’t want people in Carrollton to be able to hear my music. If they did, then I could be sued for illegal file sharing, right? Ugh. I love Fry’s.

Despite its potentially illegal range, I decided that the FM Transmitter was the way to go. I found it kind of funny that, of the 7 to 10 different versions of iPod FM Transmitters they carried and of the 5 to 10 different car mounting options they had, none of them really suited my needs. Maybe I just “have to change my needs so that they are met by what I have”:http://crackmonkey.livejournal.com/537536.html. In the end, after searching for over an hour, I picked up a transmitter and mounting combination designed to slide nicely into a cup holder. Of course, my cup holders are too far back and too low to make using it while driving practical, so I’ll have to work something else out.

I’m thinking I may just pick up a dash board mount of some kind and then wire an FM Transmitter behind it out of sight. Then I can get an iPod car charger that has an integrated headphone jack so that I’ll only have to make one cable connection when putting the iPod in the car. What’s really nice about this setup is that I can reuse the mount and transmitter with almost any other device that happens to have a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Ideally, though, I’d like to get an FM Transmitter that attaches directly to the iPod in a seamless fashion. This will make it easier to unplug it from it’s charger and pass it around the car if someone else wants to be in charge of the music for a while. It also means that I can use the Transmitter outside of the car which is a bonus. I had an attached Transmitter before I picked up the cup holder version, though, and it didn’t sound very good at all. I’m worried that, because it’s powered by the iPod, the signal strength is too weak to be usable. Perhaps, the product I had was just bad. It’s worth another shot, maybe. I’ll pick one up from Fry’s today and see how it does.

I hate my iPod Nano

Sep 25th, 2006
by Jim Reverend.
16 comments

So I did it. I broke down and bought a 8GB iPod Nano yesterday.

And now, less than 24 hours later I can say that I hate my iPod Nano. There’s nothing wrong with the device, exactly. In fact, it stores and plays music just like it promised it would. But I’m still left feeling cheated.

First let me point out that I am not qualified to review personal audio players. I have used very few of them and do not really know what to expect. However, I do know what to expect from software and electronic devices in general, and I base my opinions on that knowledge.

Before I start sobbing uncontrollably, I’d like to remember why I bought the iPod brand in the first place: iTunes and recommendations.

Let’s start with iTunes. From what I’ve been told, if you want to use iTunes to its full capacity you have to have an iPod brand player. And, from what I’ve been told, you want to use iTunes to its full capacity. But, in practice, it doesn’t seem to offer anything that other media managers don’t offer and, in many cases, falls behind. Maybe I don’t know how to use it and maybe I’m just an idiot, but I couldn’t even get it to sync up. iTunes locked up every time I tried to uncheck all of my media so that I could select only a subset of it to send to the iPod. I’ll admit that I didn’t read any kind of manual, but I didn’t read a manual for Media Monkey either. “Media Monkey”:http://www.mediamonkey.com/, however, worked flawlessly and it is what I ended up using to load music on my iPod. Furthermore, even when it was working, iTunes was slower, more difficult to navigate, and less feature-full than Media Monkey.

Now about those recommendations. While I read millions of recommendations for the iPod, I think part of the problem is that technology is no longer reviewed only by technologically inclined people. Everyone uses this new technology and, therefore, their statements cannot be assumed to be educated or experienced. Further more, an iPod is a fashion statement. This makes many of these recommendations merely a review of what’s cool and not what actually works well.

I remember back in the early 90s when people used to swear that Doc Martens were the best boots ever and that there was no comparison and that they were totally worth the extra cost compared to other brands. The truth was, many of the people making such claims had never owned any boot other than Doc Martens and only purchased that brand because it was the “in” thing. Now, I’m not saying Docs weren’t the best. I don’t know, I never owned a pair.

As far as the iPod Nano is concerned, yeah it works. It plays music. I can press some buttons and get the device to play a song and I can recognize the song being played as music that I intended to be played. So it certainly meets the base criteria required for a personal audio player. But that doesn’t make it stand out. Almost every player on the market meets this criteria.

From what I can see, the iPod Nano offers few extra features, is constructed in a way that begs it to be scratched, scuffed, and destroyed, is guaranteed to need to be replaced eventually, and serves to lock me into its technology and buying more ipods. Furthermore, in my opinion, it isn’t all that nice looking.

First and foremost, is the battery. The iPod Nano’s battery is locked in place. It’s not “user replaceable”. Yes, it can be replaced, but it hasn’t been designed to be. One day the battery will die and I will be in a situation where I have to decide between having it replaced and buying a new one. Can you guess what Apple is hoping I’ll do?

As if this wasn’t bad enough, the iPod doesn’t even include a wall charger. Without a USB port on a computer that is turned on and powered up, you can’t charge the iPod without buying more equipment. Want to charge your iPod in your hotel room? You’d better have your laptop with you or you’ll need to buy some extra equipment. How silly would it be if laptop vendors only provided a means to charge your laptop from your desktop?

Regardless of these things, the iPod Nano supposedly has a vast array of superior features when compared to other players. Now,We’ve already discussed iTunes and its failings in comparison with Media Monkey. So any feature that is only available due to that software is moot considering that Media Monkey is free and works with many compliant media players, unlike iTunes which will only fully lock and load with an iPod. So how about the features of the device itself. Well, check this out! It offers a calendar! And notes! And you can look at photos! And it has a clock!! Of course, all of these things do nothing for me. Oh, and yeah, it plays music too.

As far as music playing features goes it has all the normal things you’d come to expect from any music player: it plays music, you can skip tracks, you can pause the music, and you can turn it off. In addition, it has the following features that you’d expect from most advanced players: you can select a specific song to be played, you can seek in a track, and you can play an entire Album, Artist, or Playlist. The only special features is has is that it will display album art and you can rate the track you are listening to. That’s it.

To me, those two features alone are not worth the increased price. On top of that, to me, a Nano feels too breakable, seems easily scratchable, and isn’t all that nice looking. When I consider that there are other players with *more* features, wall chargers, a user replaceable battery, and a nicer look and feel for *less* money, buying a Nano seems downright stupid.

Take, for instance, the Creative Zen V. It plays music and has the same basic and advanced features that we’ve come to expect from a full-featured music player. This is basically where the Nano stops. But not the Zen V. In addition, it has a line level input, built in microphone, and FM radio. The battery is user replaceable and, for those who need more battery life, several can be purchased, pre-charged, and replaced when needed.

In addition to these things the Zen V offers some extra features in the music playing department, the most important of which is on-the-fly playlist building (known as DJ mode). To me, building a playlist on the fly is a crucial feature that all audio players should have and the fact that the Nano does not is just silly. I found myself listening to one song and wanting to hear another song next. But, having no way to “queue” it up, I’d have to wait for the song I was listening to to finish, stop the music, browse to the next song, and then start it up again. Some time back I was playing with someone else’s audio player I remember that I used on-the-fly playlist building more than anything else, queueing up song after song and arranging my newly built playlist to my heart’s content. I found this feature to be so crucial that I figured the Nano must include it and actually broke out the manual which is as short and simple as the Nano is featureless. Nope. It doesn’t do it.

So, the price tag on the iPod isn’t for its features, construction, reliability, or interoperability. It’s for the brand name. It’s a fashion statement.

Will I be buying a Creative Zen V? Maybe. Will I be taking my iPod Nano back? Most likely.

If anyone would like to recommend a product OTHER than an iPod, I’d love to hear it. Please state which other audio players you’ve used and when you use words to relate your product to others (like easy, best, better, awesome, and sucks) please indicate what experience or education in this arena you have to allow you to make these qualifications.

when the walls fell

Sep 23rd, 2006
by Jim Reverend.
3 comments

Yesterday was a typical work Friday. Reporting first thing in the morning, followed by a long conference call, and then small end-of-week emergencies until quitting time.

After work, Jess made a fantastic dinner with sauteed tenderloin and fresh vegetables over a bed of ramen noodles. Very tasty. After dinner, Jess headed out to see Niccem and friends while I headed into Denton with Justin to play poker with the guys.

We got there just before 9pm. We goofed off, played cards, drank whiskey, smoked cigars, and discussed those hot issues that only nerds seem to care about; like what was the best PC video game of the 90s (Myst, clearly), and which “Star Trek: TNG” episode is the best (Darmok, obviously). I opened with $10 and left with a little over $15. Not too bad. I got home around 3:00am.

I woke up this morning around 8am. In the 8 hours that have passed since then, I’ve managed to do very little. The day’s biggest achievement is that I am showered. I’m still working on getting dressed though. I also spent a good deal of time researching two crucial things:

1) Should I buy a “MDA/8125/HTC Wizard”:http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?p=781 or stick with a smaller, cheaper, phone-only phone like the “Motorla PEBL U6″:http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?p=685. I’m leaning toward the HTC device because it should help me keep my schedule a bit more organized, will allow me to check my email on the run, and will serve a few other purposes (portable portfolio like “Jonathan”:http://vaxocentric.livejournal.com/ has, for instance). Initial cost-wise, it’s about the same. However, it’s an extra $30/mo to use the networking functions it provides. Plus it’s large, more likely to be destroyed, and will solicit further expense to buy gadgets and software for it.

2) Should I buy an “iPod Nano”:http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/, a “Frontier Labs NEXBlack”:http://bohwaz.kd2.org/static/nexblack/, or something else entirely. I’m still balking at the iPod, not because of cost (about $45 difference after tax and everything), but because the battery has to be charged when it runs out. If I go camping for an entire weekend, I don’t want it to run out on me. That’d be silly. But extra batteries aren’t even an option let alone affordable. The NEXBlack runs on two plain ole AAs and gets over 20 hours of use on them. The same thing goes with storage. The 8GB in the iPod is STUCK in the iPod. I can’t increase or decrease my storage capability. I can’t pull it out and access it in a way I’d prefer. I’m stuck with it. I don’t like proprietary and I don’t like being stuck. I know that sometimes we have to allow that to happen, but if I can avoid it, I’d prefer to. Not a HUGE deal, but enough to be important to me.

Advice on either front is appreciated.

Later tonight, Jess and I are going out tonight in honor of her birthday. First to a nice late dinner at a restaurant she really likes (“Dragonfly”:http://dallas.citysearch.com/profile/37414848/dallas_tx/dragonfly.html) and then for a Nightcap at “The Balcony Club”:http://dallas.citysearch.com/profile/34445667 as recommended by Mr. “Elements of Pop”:http://elementsofpop.com/, a long-time friend of mine with with impeccable taste and a vast knowledge of all things holy and unholy in Dallas.

Outside of this, I have no requirements for today.

I’ve been wanting to test a new flash idea. I’m hoping I can save $20/pop and relieve a small user interface issue by setting my flash output in a slightly different manner than I usually do. Since I don’t have a hot model handy today, I’ll probably end up photographing myself. I hate that.

I should probably also pick up the house a bit, make a trip to the hardware store, and maybe even shave my face before this evening. Don’t get your hopes up though.

eBay: returning a defective item?

Sep 22nd, 2006
by Jim Reverend.
1 comment

Among many other things, I bought a Vivitar 283 (flash) off of eBay and it arrived yesterday. Much to my dismay, it was missing one part and when I provided that part from another flash I have I found out it didn’t work at all. I emailed the seller and told her that I would like a full refund including shipping. She wrote me back today saying that I should ship the item back to her and she’ll refund my money.

On one hand that makes since. I have very little feedback on eBay and if she were to refund my money BEFORE I sent her the item, I could have a working item and all my money back. Even if I’m not lying and the item is broken, that doesn’t mean I’ll even bother to send it back to her once I get a refund. So I understand why should would want it this way.

On the other hand, I don’t want to ship back an item that was misrepresented and lose what little bit I did get out of the transaction and run the risk of not being refunded my money. Then again, it’s only $30 and the flash is pretty useless broken and would cost more than it’s worth to fix, I imagine, so I’m not really out anything but the shipping if she doesn’t refund my money.

What do you more savvy eBayers think?

eye candy factory

Sep 22nd, 2006
by Jim Reverend.
No comments yet

Yesterday I worked from home. Since I didn’t have to deal with commuting or other silly time constraints, I was able to get a full 9 hours of work in plus some personal tasks, lunch with my wife, and a bunch of photo editing done as well.

Girl in a Field

(click to enlarge)

I really like “this image of Julie”:http://djamesphoto.com/photos/200609-misc/20060910_0104-001-web.JPG (seen on this page), and “this image of Liz “:http://djamesphoto.com/photos/200609-misc/20060614_102-0001-web.JPG (NSFW). In general, I really like the photographs that I’ve been producing lately. Not only are they very visually appealing, but making them is a combination of fun and intense that I really enjoy and editing them is pretty easy since I have beautiful, patient models, I compose in the camera, and my lighting is very accurate.

After my work day ended, Jess and I headed out to Dallas for dinner and cards with Sarah and Sheridan. I’m hoping to get out to see them more often. At least every couple of weeks.

We didn’t leave until late and by the time we got home we were both pretty tired so we went straight to bed.

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