My Ebay Dispute

By Josh Highland in Josh's Rambling

I like ebay, I have been using it for about 8 years now. I really like the “buy it now” feature. On November 30 I used “buy it now” to get a Honeywell VisionPro Digital Thermostat. I paid right away using paypal, paying the full amount that paypal calculated.

4 days leter I get an email from ebay saying that a non payment report has been filed against me. I went and checked my paypal account, knowing that I paid this guy, I found out that he had refunded my money… odd.

In the ebay litigation forms I reported that I paid the guy, and he refused my funds. The guy responded that I didnt sent enough money to him. what? I paid the amount that paypal said I owed. After a bit of back and forth, The guy said that I didnt include sales tax. No where in the ebay auction did it say that I needed to pay California sales tax. I told the guy that, and He still insisted that I pay it. Ok, Im an American, I’ll pay my taxes. I told the guy to send me the total amount that is due, and I will pay him. His response was, “use the botton on the auction that says pay now”. So I do that. It took me to paypal with the dollar amount was already populated for me. I pay that amount. 3 days go by, no word from him. I think Im in the clear. I check my paypal account, HE DECLINES MY MONEY AGAIN! Again stating that it was not enough. I had 1 day left to clear this up or ebay was going to flag my account as a non payer, something I don’t want.

Through some google searches, I found the company that I bought the thermostat from. I called them up and talked to the guy about the situation. He went into a speech about how I have not been paying the right amount, and that I need to pay taxes, blah blah blah. I told the guy to just tell me how much everything with taxes would cost me, and I would send him the money later that day via paypal. He said he would email me the appropriate amount (not the amount that I agreed to pay on ebay).

I got home from work, the email was there, It was for $9 more then what I had agreed to pay. I paid it because I didn’t want to hurt my ebay rep, but I think it’s a bunch of crap. If the guy needs to charge sales tax, he needs to state that in his auctions.

No positive feed back from me. The companys name is All Thermal. The guys ebay name is thermalresources

On a side note, I got the thermostat 2 days later, It rules. This guy is still ripping people off on ebay though.

screen capture of windows media player 10

By Josh Highland in software, tutorials

Today at work, I needed to take a screen capture of a movie running in windows media 10. I loaded the movie and pressed the "print screen" button on the keyboard. When I pasted the image into photoshop, the media player was black.
After some google searches and playing with the horid media player 10 interface, I figured it out.

  1. Open Window Media Player
  2. click on the "down arrow icon" in the upper right corner of the app
  3. navigate to options
  4. click the performance tab
  5. click the "Advanced…" button
  6. uncheck "use overlays"
  7. click "ok"
  8. click "apply"
  9. click "yes"
  10. click "ok"

Now when you press the "print screen" button when windows media player is running, you will capture the movie frame, not a black box.

Baby Samson!

By Josh Highland in Josh's Rambling

On Saturday we picked up our newest baby, Samson, from the airport. He was scared and shaking when we picked him up, but once Amy started to hold him he came around quickly. He is a little guy, only 1.5 pounds, and 11 weeks old.

When The Moose (our other 4 lb, 9 month old Chihuahua) saw him for the first time, she flipped out Tasmanian devil style. Long story short, all of Saturday I had to hold Samson, The Moose did not like Amy holding Samson at all. I even slept on the couch with Samson, away from The Moose. Amy had to go to work at 7am on Sunday, so I let The Moose climb up on the coach with Samson and I to sleep some more. The dogs curled up together and a truce was formed as we all slept in.

The puppies played on Sunday together. The Moose is 4 times Samsons size, so she just dominates him, and doesnt stop even after he gives up. I baby sat them while Amy went Christmas shopping. That night both the dogs slept together with us, things were fine.

On Monday I went to work, and Amy stayed at home with the puppies. at 4:15pm I got a call from Amy with panic in her voice. “Samson broke his leg!”. The little guy was on the coach with Amy and The Moose. Moose jumped down off the coach, and Samson decided to follow her. I left work and hurried home.

When I got there, he was holding his front left paw up, and it was just kind of hanging there. He wasnt making any noises though. We hurried to the animal hospital only to wait for 2 hours. They took x-rays and found that he didnt break anything, just a dislocation, but they were going to set it and cast it up, and to come back in an hour. When we picked him up, I paid the rather high bill, and we took him home. The cast was really big, and I wanted to see if he could walk using it. I set him down, and all of a sudden, he starts favoring and holding up the leg thats not in the cast. Thats when I realized that THE DOCTOR PUT THE CAST ON THE WRONG LEG!!!!! now Samson couldn’t use either of his front legs! I called the hospital, and they gave me the vets cell phone. I called and explained what happened to him. Any hour later we met him back at the hospital. He took Samson, took the cast off, and put it on the proper leg. The Doc also gave me a $20 credit on our next visit… I dont know if I want to go back to him though.

Only I would get a puppy who breaks his leg in less then 72 hours of being in my possession, and only I would go to a vet that puts a cast on the wrong leg. what the hell!

Now little Samson really cant defend himself against The Moose, but they are getting a long better now. Poor baby Samson!

Jimmy Eat World

By Josh Highland in Josh's Rambling, music

Jimmy Eat Worlds album "Clarity" came out early 1999, I was in college, I had just lost my girlfriend, most of my friends had moved away. It was a lonely time for me, but a good time. I really related to this album and played it over and over. Track 10, "For me this is heaven" was good enough for Amy and I to use it as the first dance at our wedding.

The last time I saw Jimmy Eat World play was in 2001, at the Glasshouse in Pomona Ca. It was one of those shows that you still talk about if you were lucky enough to get a ticket.

I was really excited to hear that J.E.W. was going to be playing Glasshouse again. They could sell out a stadium if they wanted to. Long story short, the show sold out in 2 minutes through ticket master, I didnt get tickets. I knew Amy wanted to go, so I bought some off of eBay.

The show was last Friday. It had been a long time since I had been to an emo/indie show, especially at glasshouse. The first thing we did was check out the merch table. There was a huge sign "CASH ONLY". This should have served as my first warning that the crowd at the show was going to be full of lames

quick side note:
shows are not concerts, concerts are not shows. Concerts have assigned seats, and you cant get near the bands. Punk bands and all the bands that play some form of derived punk music (emo/screamo/hardcore/etc.) dont play concerts, they play shows. 99% of the time there are no credit cards or ATMS at shows. Its cash and carry only. If someone says "I went to a so and so concert", you know they arnt into the scene surrounding the music.

Amy wanted a hoodie, until we saw they price was $40! shirts were $25!, and cds were $15! CDs at shows should be $10 thats they way it has been, and should be. I told the merch guy I could get the cd for cheaper then that at best buy. He didnt have an argument.

Inside the venue, we hung out… another CASH ONLY sign was by the snack bar in the back. Thee place slowly began to fill up with people, then the opening band went on, Jade Shadder. They wernt that good, but they are friends with J.E.W. so they got the show. The drummer of that band was the only redeeming thing. The guy went off, and was really fun to watch.

By the time that Jimmy took the stage, the place was packed with 1000+ people. They opened up with "For me this is heaven", Amy and I were happy. They played really well, then again, everything they touch turns to gold. The crowd was really non-responsive to the older songs, but lost their minds during the songs that got radio play. During those songs I saw some thing that should not be part of a Jimmy Eat World show, including but not limited to:

  • metal horns thrown in constently
  • moshing / kids trying to mosh
  • crowd surfing
  • constent screaming of "you fucking rock! WOOOOOO!" between each song

Jimmy played for almost 2 hours, tons of energy. It was a really good set. They are amazing musicians, and great song writers. I would gladly pay the money to see them again. They will probably never play the Glasshouse again, but I hope they do. It would be even better to see them again in a super small club (I saw them at the barn in riverside circa 98).

The show also made me realize that I just dont like seeing bands play live, but I like the atmosphere that the "scene" around a genre. Im glad to say that I got to see Jimmy Eat World before they blew up. Its not the bands fault. Im happy they are doing well for themselves.

Jimmy Eat World will always hold a special place in my heart.

I lit my kitchen on fire!

By Josh Highland in Josh's Rambling

Wow, sorry for the lack of updates. The last week has been really busy for me.

On Tuesday, Amy got a call from Loma Linda Childrens hospital. They offered her a job. The Best part is that she put in her 2 weeks notice at starbucks about an hour before loma linda called. Talk about being looked out for by someone. She doesnt start her new job until February. Until then, Amy is going to be the EBay queen. We have so much junk that we need to sell.

Thursday was Thanksgiving. I made a veggie ham log. It was amazing as usual. We did a lot of running around, amys moms, then her dads, then my parents new house. Later that night keller, anessa, and beejay came over and we watched crash. I really liked it. Matt Dillon will always be a bad ass in my book.

Friday, I helped my mom and dad move stuff from my grandmas house into their new house. We also took some time a cleaned up our old house… damn is it full of junk. It will be fun to remodel and sell I think. Put my house flipping skills to the test. I would love to get into that business one day.

Saturday, was the annual IWC vegan thanksgiving feast. Keller made most of the food as usual. I cooked an un-turkey for the event (i think i like tofery a bit better though). This year the event was at the church. It was nice having a big venue to hold it in for once. I think there was about 40 of us. It was a good time for sure. A group of us played star wars monopoly. Beejay won. Afterwards Chris, Keller and Anessa came over and we watched the Warriors, another one of my favorite movies.

Sunday, Amy left to go visit a friend in Sacramento. I went into high gear and decided that I was going to get some stuff done around the house. I cleaned the house up and washed about 6 loads of laundry. I got the special tools I needed to cut and install my bathroom vanity top, so I did that. I bought a bunch of supplies to finish up some of the loose projects I have around the house. I installed base boards in the downstairs bathroom, and a new light fixture as well. Speaking of electrical work, I need to take an aside here…

I decided to change out some of the old electrical sockets in the kitchen. I turned off the breakers to the kitchen before I started working. I have a healthy respect for electricity so I wear rubber gloves when working with household electricity. Removal of the old socket went well, nothing special and nothing that I havent done at least 20 times before. When I was installing the new socket, My screw driver must have brushed up against the wires… * BANG! * I hear a big bang noise, and see a HUGE spark inches from my face. it was way big and way close to my face. I drop what I was doing and went to double check the breaker… I had the electricity turned off to the kitchen, that shouldnt of happened. Thats when i learned that the socket, and only that one socket is on its on breaker, which wasnt labeled. When I walked back inside the house, I see flames…my kitchen is now on fire. A couple of dish towels, the box the socket came in, and some loose papers are all on fire, great! I was right next to the sink, so the fire was easy to put out, but still sketchy. I looked at the wires, and they are melted! I picked up my screw driver, and it is melted! The metal shaft of the screw driver has 2 big divots taken out of it. One of them looks like a weld mark, and the other on looks like the metal just melted. do you know how hard it is to melt a hardened screw driver shaft? I am damn lucky that I was wearing those gloves, or I think that my hands would have weld marks and holes in them, and I would be on fire!

Back to Saturday… I worked my butt off. Later I went to dinner at thai house with steve and naomi before church.

Sunday, I worked my ass off again. Work was really good. I didnt have any meetings or interruptions. I was in code mode all day, and I got a bunch of stuff done. It reminded me of how I programmed when I was back in school. After work, I came home and started in on my house again. I installed the new above counter sink and faucet. I had to redo all the plumbing. After a few trips to Lowes and Home Depot., I got everything working. I hate plumbing because something always has a leak and I have to fight it for an hour to get it to stop. I installed my over the stove microwave again (it had been sitting on the floor for the last 4 months!). I also installed a new mirror, and door in the new bathroom. Then I cleaned everything up, vacuumed, and mopped the kitchen, dining room, and all 3 bathrooms. nonstop house work from 5pm to 2am.