Wayne and Erika Pfeiler

I saw a new Subway Restaurant commercial recently. It advertised a new sandwich - the "Stack of Angus". This immediately struck me as a departure from Subway's usual fare of low-calorie and carb-conscious menu items. Speaking of, has anybody seen Jarrod recently? What happened to him and his size 103 pants that he took everywhere? I think this sandwich signals a cry of desperation from Subway. Previously they've always taken the high road of low fat and better-for-you-than-the-competitors sandwiches.

Do you remember the Quizno's commercials asking people on the street which sandwich they'd prefer? The commercials would have us believe that Subway is downright skimpy on its meat per sandwich allocation. At first, Subway responded by comparing its coldcut sandwich to a burger at McDonalds or somewhere. They claimed you got more meat and less fat than the burger, but completely ignored its main competitor Q-something.

So I take it that campaign didn't work so well, because now they're resorting to the kind of 'Thickburger' products that Hardees advertised with a soapy Paris Hilton on a hot car. You remember that ad, surely. Subway's new Angus sandwich comes with one, two, or three beef patties. Does that sound like Wendy's to anybody else?

I've been hearing that the prime fast food demographic now is men 18-30 who don't want to cook and don't really care about calories. Maybe that's their new target with this Angus campaign. For those of us curious about the nutrition information, we might try searching Subway's website. I'll save you the trouble - as of writing this, it's not even mentioned. I did write an email to the company's customer service asking about it, but their auto-responder politely informed me that I could expect an answer within 7-10 days. We'll see.

Posted by Wayne at 05:18 PM | Permalink

Are you trying to buy a Nintendo Wii? They aren't easy to get these days, even though the system was relased in November 2006. There are all sorts of accusations flying around about how Nintendo is cleverly manipulating the market and fixing prices by releasing very game systems. I don't know if that's true, but I do know the demand is much higher than the current supply.

Here's a story about how I found out how hard it is to buy one, and how I finally did (twice): So about 3 months ago, I decided I wanted to buy a Wii. I had a bunch of Target gift cards and decided to buy one there. I went to Target's website and saw the Wii advertised with the normal price $249.99, but no "add to cart" button like pretty much everything else on the website. I didn't understand, so I called them and was informed that because of limited quantities, Wii systems are only available through retail stores. So I pull up local Target store phone numbers, and sure enough, every one of them claims to be out of Wii systems. This was a Tuesday.

I'm surprised and frustrated, so I search online for something to help me find where I can actually buy one. I found something called iTrackr that several people claim helped them. You can use it for free, or pay $2 through PayPal to have them supposedly send your cell phone text messages whenever your selected stores get a Wii in stock. This never worked. I emailed and complained and got no response. So rats off to you, iTrackr.

I found another free tool that figured out Target's inventory system and uses a backdoor to check inventory in stores close to your zip code. Just change my 27606 in the url to whatever zip code you need. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to work anymore for Wiis, but you can still use it for Wii accessories. I guess target figured it out.

Later, I found something better. Why scramble all over town hoping to find a Wii, when you can instead know exactly when and where some will show up? The solution: newspaper ads! When a store advertises an item in the Sunday (or any) paper, they absolutely have to have some in stock when they open that day. There are laws about this. I remember a bit about this from my days in highschool when I worked at Staples. So if you're industrious, you could go out early to check your local Sunday paper and quickly read through the ads to see which local retail stores advertise the Wii system.

But here's a wrinkle you might not know about: Those newspaper ads go to the newspaper a week or so before the newspaper sends them out. That means if you can get the inside information, you can find out days ahead of time where a Wii system will be available. I found a (free) website called DVD Talk where some wonderful person likes to tell others about the coming ads for Sunday papers. Just look for an entry titled something like "Best Buy Prices: July 29 - August 4, 2007" when the current date's something like July 25th.

So I found out that Target would have Wiis available the very next Sunday. What luck! I saw they opened at 8:00 am, so I woke up early and checked the Target website to confirm my local store had the Wii in its ad. Sure enough, they did. So I headed over to my favorite Target about 6:30 am. There was one man sitting in his car near the entrance when I arrived. I thought: no rush, they'll have several. So I waited around until he approached the store before I got out of the car. Apparently he'd been there for an hour before me. So I was number two in line, and about 3 more people showed up after me. Around 7:30, a nice Target guy came out and handed us all numbered cards so we wouldn't have to make a mad-dash for the electronics section. He assured us there were plenty to go around. At 8, I calmly walked up, claimed a Wii, Wii Play, extra nunchuk, and the new Zelda game.

So I played my Wii and showed it to lots of friends and family. My sister was much impressed and decided she wanted one too. So last week I decided to look around at the early ads to see who might have a Wii available. Best Buy was the only option, and they claimed to have at least 12 per store. It sounded good, so I called my sister and gave her the good news. Best Buy opened at 11:00, which worried me a little. Eight in the morning is earlier than most people like to show up at a store, but eleven isn't so scary. I thought there might be too many people to show up before me. Well, I drove up to the store at 9:30 and saw a line outside the store. I quickly counted and estimated about 12 people were there. Rats! I thought there might be more than 12 Wiis at the store, so I hurried out and jumped in line.

The woman ahead of me explained that her friend who worked at Best Buy said they're have 45 units. Excellent! So I enjoyed the company of my fellow Wii fans until 10:30, when a couple Best Buy guys came out with numbered tickets stapled to their extended warranty plan advertisement. Nice add on sale! I was number eleven. I called my sister and gave her the good news: she would get a Wii. Once in the store, I called again to ask which games she'd want. I made a quick stop by Office Depot to pick up a $25 wireless G router, and headed over to Fedex-Kinkos to ship it off. Two-day shipping was only $16.22, which included the price of a box and insurance. The whole package weighed 13.5 lbs, so I was pleased with the shipping cost. This also made me suspicious of the E-Bay sellers who want $40 for shipping a Wii.

That's your other option. You can find plenty of new Wii systems on eBay. But be prepared to pay. They like to advertise 5 free games, or 14 free games and 4 controllers. These aren't as good as they sound, since any Wii you buy comes with the 5-game Wii Sports disc. And Wii Play retails for $50 and comes with a controller. The extra nunchuk adds $20. So add up how much you'd pay at your local store before you shell out big bucks on eBay.

As for me, I'm still enjoying my Wii. Happy hunting to the rest of you.

Posted by Wayne at 01:48 PM | Permalink

So you may know I have an 18 year-old Honda Accord named Betty. I take a little pride since the car is so old that it no longer requires emissions tests. Anyway, Tuesday morning Erika had some trouble driving the car to work. It gave her a hard time starting, and then it died about a half mile from our house. Luckily, she was able to coast it down into a parking space at a nearby shopping center. But it wasn't moving. I came out to take a look at it, since I'm pretty much always able to get it to start. I couldn't. Luckily we have another (younger) car.

So Betty sat in the parking lot until lunch time, when I could get away from work and have AAA tow her to a repair shop. The mostly-friendly AAA lady on the phone suggested I have it towed to an AAA repair shop which was also close to our house. This sounded fine to me, so I followed the tow driver out there and gave the repair shop my information and car key. A few hours later I got a call from them. Guess what... They were basically afraid to work on the car since it's so old. I can somewhat appreciate this, since with an older car like mine a seemingly simple repair might reveal or cause other subsequent problems. The repair guy on the phone said I didn't owe them any money, and I could pick up my keys whenever I liked.

After work, I went back down there and talked with the repair shop guy a bit. They suspect that my fuel filter is the original one from 1989 and these really ought to be changed every 30K miles. He hypothesized that this old (and likely very-clogged) fuel filter was restricting the flow of gas so much that the engine was starving. He further projected that if I was to replace this fuel filter, the components past it along the fuel system might fail due to the sudden increase in pressure.

So I was stuck between a possible cause to the problem and the concern that I could cause more problems by trying to fix it. The mechanic said the car would start sometimes, but it took several tries. I didn't have any luck, and I thought I'd probably run the battery down. So they said I could leave the car in their lot overnight and have it towed elsewhere tomorrow. I was tired and I decided to head home.

Thinking about the problem at home, I got out my car repair manuals. I bought these back when I bought the car, since it didn't come with an owner's manual. Back then I thought I'd get more useful information from a repair manual instead, and they were cheaper. The manual detailed how to change the fuel filter, and it didn't look difficult at all. I thought it should be worth spending $30 or less to replace it myself, and at worst I'd still have a car that doesn't run. So I ran by Advance auto parts and picked up a filter for $16. I gathered up all the tools I might need and went back down to the repair shop to do some after-hours repair work. I thought it was pretty funny to be doing this sort of thing by myself while I was right outside the repair shop.

While working, I talked on the phone with Matt, a friend who knows more about cars than I ever will, and he suggested I try to change the filter. He didn't really buy the mechanic's story about a new fuel filter causing problems. He also said if I still had trouble after that, I should give him another call and he could take a look at the car for me. So inspired by this, I finished replacing the fuel filter by the street light over the parking lot. One of the banjo bolts (yes that’s a type of bolt) was on so tight, I had to use an oil filter wrench to hold the old fuel filter in place while I used an adjustable wrench on the bolt.

Then I crossed my fingers and cranked the engine. No good. I realized this new fuel filter was bone-dry and I may have to try a few times to work the air out of the line. So I did, and on the third attempt the car sluggishly started. Hooray! I called Erika and asked her to put down the new Harry Potter book for a few minutes to help me drive the other car home. Unfortunately, my conclusion of success was premature.

I had driven the car to the edge of the shopping center and gave it some gas to make my way onto the street. The engine immediately died. I coasted backward out of traffic and gave Erika another call to hold on a while. I thought maybe there was still some air in the line and I should just drive it around the parking lot a bit more. So I tried. The car repeated its problem.

After 30-45 minutes of examining the problem in detail and a couple calls from Erika, I came to these conclusions: The car would usually start sluggishly. It would idle all day without any problems in park or neutral and I could even rev up the engine a bit and it'd be fine. When I shifted to drive or reverse with my foot on the brake, the engine would idle poorly. The rpm would drop way down but usually come back up. Sometimes it would just die. If I gave the car any gas in drive or reverse, it was likely to die. I could allow the car to putt along in drive most of the time if my foot was off the accelerator. Reverse was worse than drive. If the car was pointed downhill, it seemed to do a little better. Uphill was rough. So I eked the car into a (different) parking space and called it a night.

At work, another friend (Jeff) suggested the transmission might be the culprit, since the additional tax of trying to turn the axle seemed to make the engine die. I hoped this wasn't the problem, but Jeff also warned that there may have been some merit to the AAA mechanic's concern about the car being so old. I shrugged it off and belayed my fears of Betty coming to the end of her road in a shopping center parking lot.

After work, I called Matt back and left him a message about my predicament. Erika, having finished the new HP book, was eager to take a look at my car too, so we both headed that way after work. No changes, but the car was a little more trouble to start. I think it was harder with a cold engine. While we were there, Matt called back and said he'd be happy to stop by in a few minutes to take a look, since he was on his way to go running. So while waiting, I somehow got a free drink from Hardees, since the cashier was feeling nice and they were short-handed. Matt came by and gave a five-minute assessment of the situation. I explained my findings from the previous night and gave him a summarized maintenance and repair history of the car.

In about a minute and a half, Matt had the distributor cap taken off and found the most likely problem. The rotor button's metal contact plate had all but worn away in the center. This would need to be replaced. He took a look at the spark plugs and suggested they were due to be replaced too. Matt said the ignition wires might be getting old, and they were a third possible problem. A distant fourth possibility was a part called the vacuum advance which affects the engine's timing. An even more distant possibility was the timing belt, which may have lost a tooth. Matt suggested I buy a new set of spark plugs and distributor rotor button. He even offered to help us put those in after his run.

So we ran out to Advance auto parts again and picked up the needed parts for about $10. After changing clothes, Erika and I returned to see Betty and we changed out the plugs. Just after that, Matt called to say he'd be there in a minute. He helped us install the rotor button, and I cranked the engine. Success! A silly $3 plastic part about the size of my thumb was all that needed to be replaced. It was probably a good idea to change the fuel filter and spark plugs anyway. But I was amazed. I have no idea how much a repair shop would have charged to diagnose the problem. We offered Matt our eternal thanks and shook greasy hands.

I can gather several morals from the story: Keep your car up to date in maintenance. Don't always take the first repair shop's opinion. And if you can, make friends with a former mechanic. Thanks Matt, the next round's on me.

Posted by Wayne at 06:47 PM | Permalink

I just purchased some tickets to see the new Harry Potter movie on opening night. I thought I'd avoid the possibility of a sell-out by buying tickets online. I used the Fandango website to do this and wound up pretty mad.

First, I was annoyed that I couldn't buy tickets using the student discount that we're accustomed to. Second, their checkout process works in this way:
1) Choose tickets and see a "total" price.
2) Enter your credit card info.
3) See a message that you must also agree to an additional "convenience charge" of $1.00 per ticket in order to finalize your purchase.

What a load of crap! To me, this is basically a "bait and switch" technique to gouge the customer by tacking on hidden charges. I'm pretty mad about it, and I sent a letter to their customer service. I don't really expect a response, but I wanted to let them know I'm not happy about it.

So, if you can avoid it, DON'T use Fandango to buy your tickets. Unless it's opening night...

Posted by Wayne at 10:02 PM | Permalink

I received a letter in the mail last week from the city. Inside I read that I have been summoned to appear for Jury Duty in mid-July. Lots of other information followed along with a stern warning that I better show up unless I am:
1) Dead,
2) Over 72 year old,
3) Mentally handicapped,
4) Not a citizen of Wake county,
5) A felon or
6) I have already served in the last two years.
So as you can imagine, I don't meet any of those criteria for not serving.

Okay, so I have to go, how much do they pay you for this? Haha. $12 for the day. If it lasts longer, they give $20/day for the next 4 days, and really long trials start paying $40/day on the 6th day. I looked up the Jury Duty FAQ for North Carolina and I learned that it's inappropriate to wear a halter top, cut-off jeans, or bring my knitting needles to court.

Trying to look on the bright side, I thought it might be somewhat interesting and I'd look forward to seeing how the jury-side of a trial works. Especially if this was a major trial, I'd love to see how detailed the deliberation is between everyone on the jury. I'm imagining it might be a bit like the movie Twelve Angry Men. But sure, it will probably be something much more pedestrian.

I mentioned my upcoming public service to a few friends and I was cautioned that I probably wouldn't actually be called to serve. Apparently one of the first questions the attorneys like to ask potential jurors is how much education they've had. So, I finished high school, I have a BS, an MS, and I'm working hard on a PhD. I'm not sure if this goes against a "jury of your peers" or if my education would intimidate the other jurors and give an unfair bias, or something else completely. We'll have to see how it goes. Maybe my education will "lead the attorneys or the judge to feel that [I] could not be objective in considering the evidence in this trial." Haha.

They better still pony up that $12.

Posted by Wayne at 06:24 PM | Permalink

Back in November last year, I ordered a USB memory drive from Buy.com for about $40. There was also a manufacturer rebate from Kington for $25, which would have made the thing a good price at $15. It took a little over a week to ship to me, but then in early December I got the memory drive and mailed in all the required information to the rebate center. I waited around and finally I found out they denied my claim.

They said that my "Purchase date on sales receipt does not fall within program dates". This was totally untrue, so I called the customer support line and asked why. After explaining everything to the girl on the phone, we decided that perhaps the rebate-checker people only read the ship date on my invoice. And since Buy.com took about a week to send the thing to me after I ordered it, the shipping invoice date was after the rebate period. However, the rebate states that the purchase date must be in the certain period, and it was, so I'm entitled to the rebate. The girl on the phone said I have to send in the needed documentation again, but to a different address. So I did that back in late January.

Now it's mid February, and I still don't have a my rebate. The online status hasn't changed since I sent in the re-request two weeks ago. Today I called to ask about it and after waiting 12 minutes on hold, the girl on the phone simply responded with "give it more time... at least a week". So now it's been 3 months since I ordered the thing. That's 1/4 a year that the company has been able to play with my money (interest-free) and not do anything. This feels a little like that movie Rainmaker where the corrupt insurance company's policy is to deny all first claims, and hope people don't try again. Granted, my $25 isn't much, but how many people are they doing this to?

next time I'll just look for a low price without rebates.

Posted by Wayne at 06:10 PM | Permalink

Saturday morning, Erika and I and about 1400 other crazy people met up at the NCSU Belltower for a 4-mile donut eating race. It was all to benefit the NC Children's Hospital and have some fun.

The way it works is runners pay a $10 or $15 entry fee and get a t-shirt, and meet up on the chosen date to run/jog/walk 2 miles from the belltower to the Krispy Kreme store in downtown Raleigh. Once there, the challengers are to eat 12 hot glazed donuts and then hurry 2 more miles back to the belltower, all within an hour. It was crazy, and it was fun. This year, the best time was under 25 minutes. I remember seeing this guy racing back as I was still trying to get to KK. I came in with a time of 1:01:34, so technically I didn't quite meet the challenge. I also technically only ate 2 donuts, and carried the rest back with me - can't let those gems go to waste, right?

Notable appearances were made by Elvis, Extreme Wolfpack fans, and pirates pushing a grocery cart/ship along the way. I was impressed by how many people came out to volunteer their time during the event. Police even blocked off traffic as runners raced along the downtown streets. We took a bunch of pictures and posted a few for your viewing pleasure.

There's a website with more information about the fundraiser if you're like to check it out.

Posted by Wayne at 11:44 AM | Permalink

So we got the first snow of the season in Raleigh this morning. It wasn't enough to close the city down, and it looks like the public works people did their job by spraying brine on most of the roads last night. Lots of the local schools closed for the day, or opened with a delay, but NCSU was still in session. By this afternoon, the temperature is supposed to warm up and we'll get some rain. But the snow is pretty while it lasts. I posted a few other pictures as well.

Posted by Wayne at 11:51 AM | Permalink

Have you received an email like this one? Usually these work by convincing people to hand over their bank account information to receive a "wire transfer" for the prize money. Then the criminals bleed your account dry. My favorite line in this one is where it says "we request that you keep this award strictly from public notice until the entire process of transferring your claims has been completed". What's your favorite/most hated internet scam?

QUEST LOTTERY GAMES INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS PROGRAMS
*********************************************************************
675 DEFLOCKLAAN STRAAT 1657 JK
AMSTERDAM THE NETHERLANDS.
**********************************************************************
PROMOTIONS/PRIZE AWARD DEPARTMENT
DEAR SIR/MADAM,
RESULTS FOR FIRST CATEGORY DRAWS.
After a successful completion of the first category draws of QUEST-LOTTERY GAMES INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS.
You have emerged as one of the winners of the QUEST-LOTTERY GAME INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS, which is part of our promotional draws. Participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from 30,000 email addresses of individuals and companies from America, Africa, Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe, Middle East, and New Zealand as part of our International Promotions Program.
*********************************************************************
You/Your Company, attached to:
TICKET NUMBER:AS1-VC9-65LU
SERIAL NUMBER:TYP-LDD
LUCKY NUMBER:DSE-MJK-29RGN
REFERENCE NUMBER: QUI-UU4-5L
BATCH NUMBER:BXQ6-Y22UY-POQ
*********************************************************************
As a category (A) winner, you have been selected by computer balloting system where only email addresses are soughted,from a total numbers of 30,000 email addresses drawn from all over the globe. After an automated computer ballot of our International Promotions Program consequently won in the first Category.
You have therefore been awarded a lump sum pay out of 2,000,000.00EUROS. Which is the winning payout for first categories winners. This is from the total prize money of 12,000,000.00Euros shared among the six international winners in the FIRST categories.
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!
You have to contact the (File/Claim Officer) for immediate remittance your E-mail address won the lucky number.
To avoid mix up of numbers and names of any kind, we request that you keep this award strictly from public notice until the entire process of transferring your claims has been completed, and your funds remitted to your account. This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming or unscrupulous acts by participants of this program required by the (QUEST-LOTTERY GAMES INTERNATIONAL).
We also wish to bring to your notice our End of Year
(2006) high stakes where you stand a chance of winning up to 13 million Euros; We hope that with a part of your prize you will participate.
To begin your claims process of your winning prize, please contact your claims agent through e-mail or telephone,fax immedaitely you received this notification for due processing and remittance of your prize money to a designated account of your choice.
*********************************************************************
File/Claim Officer
MR.PIRES VAN MOORE.
manager International Remmittance/Credit unit Facility Management Region CITI Trust Finance & Security
98 Kimpering Straat
1263 Qx Amsterdam Netherlandse
Tel: + 31-644-759-xxx
Fax: + 31-847-535-xxx
EMAIL: xxx@aim.com

**********************************************************************
Remember, you must contact your claim agent not later than july 20th 2006 after this date, all funds will be returned as unclaimed
NOTE: To avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please remember to quote your reference and batch numbers provided below in every one of your correspondence with your claims agent.
You are to provide the below details,to enable the speedy evaluation and processing of your winnings.
we advice that you adhere strictly to their procedures to avoid any disqualifications and subsequent cancellation.

1.Your full names:
2. your full home / office address:
3. direct telephone/fax numbers:

the above detailed information will be absolutely necessary to file in your claims.
Congratulations once again from all staffs of (QUEST-LOTTERY INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS) thank you for being part of our promotions program.
Sincerely,
THE LOTTERY COORDINATOR,
QUEST-LOTTERY INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS.
Sincerely Your's,
Miss.Tina Van Rouhdoff.
N.B. Any breach of confidentiality on the part of the winners will result to disqualification. Please do not reply to this mail.
Contact your claims agent.

Posted by Wayne at 09:55 AM | Permalink

We aren't taking any classes this summer, so we haven't had to study for tests and turn in assignments. However, since we're in graduate school, it doesn't mean we get time off either. Basically in research-oriented graduate programs around here, the students are expected to convert from the normal (20 hours of classes and studying + 20 hours of research) per week into 40 hours/week of research.

If you've never done anything like that, I'll explain it a bit. Research means lots of things. We have to find and read lots of technical journal articles to find out what other researchers have done and are doing around the world in our area of interest. Luckily, these are mostly available online, so we don't have to spend hours in a library. After we think we've learned enough about whatever we want to study, we come up with some new unanswered questions and design an experiment that should try to answer those questions. You know, all that scientific method stuff. So after we've got a plan about what we want to do, we order supplies and grow up cells/bacteria that we'll need for the experiements. When we've got everything together, we spend lots of time in the lab, and/or in front of a computer to run the tests. Often times the test don't go the way we expect, or they just don't work. This usually calls for changing the plans or repeating the experiements. Sometimes we'll stumble across something really interesting and the research will take a new turn, but that can't be predicted. So after we get losts of results from the experiments, we decide what all the data tell us. By the way, in science-talk, data is a plural word and datum is the singular. So we then we sit down to make lots of charts and figures and try to write a paper about what we learned and why it's important. This paper will then be sent off to a scientific journal editor.

You might think that's the end of it, but it's not over yet. The editor will send copies on to people called reviewers who will scrutinize our paper and decide what they think about it. They'll make suggestions for changes, or ask us to repeat or add more experiments to make the paper better. If we're particularly unlucky, the reviewer might just say the paper isn't worth publishing and reject it outright. So we typically have to wait 3 monts to a year to hear back about what the reviewers think, and then we'll make whatever changes they asked for. After a second round of review, the journal will hopefully accept the paper, and it will be published.

So that's basically what graduate students do over the summer. Not as much fun as trips to Mexico, or Caribbean cruises, but hopefully the stuff we work on will be helpful to people in the future.

Posted by Wayne at 05:30 PM | Permalink

We went to see this movie over the weekend, right after 36 holes at putt-putt. It was a beautiful sunny weekend and the movie was pretty good, we laughed a lot. They did a pretty good job of endearing the tobacco advocate character 'Nick Naylor' to the audience, which was expected. It won't be a blockbuster, but it's pretty funny. Go see it if you need a laugh.

Posted by Wayne at 10:01 PM | Permalink

I saw this little guy running across the floor at night, so I caught him long enough to take a picture. I found a pretty cool spider image website with pictures people have sent in from all over the place. So apparently, this is a Wolf spider. They like to come out at night to prowl around and catch insects, but they usually don't build webs. They're not supposed to be dangerous to people and are considered beneficial. After the photo shoot I turned him loose in the back yard.

Posted by Wayne at 08:16 PM | Permalink

Today I went to the dentist...first time in forever. I know, every 6 months is best, but for some reason, graduate programs don't think it's important to include dental coverage for their students.

Rant 1) To be fair, they offer an optional dental plan at additinoal cost. But what they don't tell you until you read the fine print, is that the amount you have to pay in premiums annually is nearly equal to the maximum annual benefit. Wow. So I recently found a "Dental Plan" as oposed to "dental insurance" that gives a discount on rates and for Erika and me works out to save us money so we can be going regularly.

Rant 2) Dental Hygenists. I'm usually pretty laid back, but Renee seemed to get under my skin. So I fill out 10 pages of paperwork and then they want to xray me 80 times. First those awful bit wings - one of which cut my mouth/throat due to how Renee shoved it in there. Then they do the panoramic xray of my whole head. I should probably provide a little detail on Renee. She's about 4-foot nothing tall, blonde, and I've decided she has a naploean complex. So after the stand-up pano-scan xray, she's trying to take off the lead apron I was wearing. Sin'ce I'm about 6'3" tall, and to be nice, I crouch down a little so she can actually reach my shoulders. Somehow that gets her all upset and she tells me "No no! Stand up!" So I do, and she tugs pretty hard at the apron where she can reach it. She pulls and pulls and finally she's able to drag the thing off me. The rest of the session wasn't much better.

Luckily, I didn't have any cavities. Hooray! The tone of the dentist told me he was little annoyed at that, since I hadn't been to see a dentist in so long. Oh well.

Posted by Wayne at 05:34 PM | Permalink

I was looking through pictures I took on the way back from Tennessee and I found this one. I took this along I-74 north of Winston-Salem without knowing what it was. Turns out this thing is called Pilot Mountain. It's a technically a quartzite monadnock that stands about 1400 feet above the surrounding ground, and it's part of the Pilot Mountain State Park. People can't climb on top of the "Big Pinnacle" because some endangered birds use this as a nesting grounds. If you click on the photo to enlarge it twice, you can see a bird flying near the left corner of the mountain. I read there used to be a series of metal ladders on the side that people could use to climb up to the top. Just imagine what the view was like. Supposedly, this was the source of the fictional "Mt Pilot" on the Andy Griffith Show too.

Posted by Wayne at 05:40 PM | Permalink

Last thursday, Erika got the itch to cook a dinner and invite some friends to come, so we did that Saturday evening. It also gave us an excellent excuse to clean the house up a bit. We had a good time, Ruwan, Shantha, Carla and Phil joined us for dinner, a movie and then a round of Cranium.

Posted by Wayne at 01:20 PM | Permalink

Here's a transcript of my online chat with a Dell support person. Remember the coupon codes they gave me a while back for all the camera ordering problems they gave me? Well, the $75 coupon code was invalid, so for the last month, I've been trying to get it replaced. This is about how each chat goes. Note the interesting new info about coupon codes (green/red).

Session Started with Agent (Nandini Gokul)
T Wayne Pfeiler: "Still awaiting response to case # x"
Agent (Nandini Gokul): "At the end of this interaction you may be offered the opportunity to provide me with feedback. In order to do so you will need to click the "End Chat" button rather than using the "X" at the top of the screen. You may rate this interaction on a scale of"
Agent (Nandini Gokul): "Hello Wayne."
T Wayne Pfeiler: "hi"
Agent (Nandini Gokul): "Please allow me 2 minutes, I will check on that."
T Wayne Pfeiler: "thanks"
Agent (Nandini Gokul): "For verification purposes, may I please have your name, full address, phone number and email, while I check on the status?"
T Wayne Pfeiler: "T Wayne Pfeiler, ...x"
Agent (Nandini Gokul): "Thank you for the verification."
Agent (Nandini Gokul): "I find the request was submitted on Jan 5."
Agent (Nandini Gokul): "You had to get the coupon through email 2day, I suggest you to wait on tomorrow, in case you do not receive the code, please contact us back, we will be able to assist you."
T Wayne Pfeiler: "well"
T Wayne Pfeiler: "the previous chat agent said "I am extremely sorry for this. I will reissue you a $75 coupon right away and make sure that you receive it within next 24-48 hours.""
T Wayne Pfeiler: "and it's been nearly 96 hours since then"
T Wayne Pfeiler: "Are you able to check the status, to see if Agent (Parul Nagpal) has submitted a request for this?"
Agent (Nandini Gokul): "I understand your concern, I find request was submitted to send you within 48 business hours, unfortunately as there was no stock of coupon codes, it is delayed."
T Wayne Pfeiler: "You mean coupon codes are not automatically generated?"
T Wayne Pfeiler: "But you have some sort of periodic quota or ration of coupon codes?"
Agent (Nandini Gokul): "Yes, you are right."
T Wayne Pfeiler: "Alright, I'll wait until tomorrow"
Agent (Nandini Gokul): "Sure."
T Wayne Pfeiler: "That's all I need, thanks."
Agent (Nandini Gokul): "Is there anything else I can assist you with?"
T Wayne Pfeiler: "No thanks, goodbye"
Agent (Nandini Gokul): "You are welcome and have a pleasant day."
Agent (Nandini Gokul): "Thank you for visiting Dell Consumer Customer Care online chat and allowing me the opportunity to assist you. I have included your case # x to reference our interaction today. Please keep this on file; it will assist you when contacting Dell Inc"

We'll see... But I won't hold my breath.

Posted by Wayne at 01:09 PM | Permalink

We watched the big shiny ball drop last night as Dick Clark counted it down. Bless him, I'm glad he was feeling up to the tv appearance despite the stroke he's had. We celebrated with some sparkling white wine from California. Today we took down all the Christmas decorations, lights, and tree. That's always a little sad since it means we have to go back to normal work schedules soon. The short break from school was very much appreciated. I think Annie really liked the extra time with us during the holiday break. She's been really good about traveling lately, and she acted fairly well while visiting everybody. I don't really like the idea of new years resolutions, so I try not to make them. If there's something I think I should do, I usually just do it. I hope everyone has a good 2006.

Posted by Wayne at 03:14 PM | Permalink

Tonight we went downtown with a bunch of friends to the Flying Saucer. It's a pretty cool bar with a great selection of beers. Tuesday nights they do a trivia game at 7:00pm, and then a little later they set out a free buffet for patrons. Our trivia score wasn't in the top 4, so we didn't win any prizes... maybe next week. 1st place gets $50 off their bar tab. It sounds like a lot, but then you think about the 3-9 people sitting at the table who share it. If you're ever around Raleigh, or one of the 10 other cities home to the Flying Saucer, you should check it out.

Posted by Wayne at 10:01 PM | Permalink

Erika put on a baker's hat over the weekend and made a ton of holiday cookies. She put together a plate like this one for each of her co-workers, and she also made some for my research group too!

Posted by Wayne at 05:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I saw this sign on the walk to work this morning. It's advertising a group called Wakup Walmart and sponsored by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.

I've heard a lot of negative comments in the media about Walmart lately. It's interesting. A few years ago my general impression of the company was pretty positive...it had a great distribution system and was able to offer better than average prices. Now I hear things all the time about poor benefits for workers, high competition for manufacturers, smaller companies losing business, etc.

So why is Walmart the focus of so much more criticism now? I wonder if it has a lot to do with how they've firmly established their company as the "big dog" on the street. They're the largest retail company around and they do more business than I'd like to think about. I'm not saying Walmart is perfect, but I think people's reaction to them lately has something to do with psychology.

Given I'm not a psych major, but I think there's a tendency for people to root against the clear leader in a competition. Remember Microsoft a few years ago with the aniti-trust lawsuit. People were so excited to see what would happen to this hug company and how hard they'd fall. And a similar thing happened to Martha Stewart a few years ago. People were so excited to see how much trouble she would get into, and if she'd go to jail. I wonder how much of the public and media backlash at Walmart has to do with this.

What do you think?

Posted by Wayne at 08:35 AM | Permalink

So after my bad experience with Dell, I decided to find the camera somewhere else. eCost had a pretty good price with cheap overnight shipping, but after I ordered one, they told me they were out of stock. So I cancelled that, and found one on eBay. I like eBay when I know exactly what I want, and don't think I'll need to return it. That's pretty much the case with this camera, so I didn't feel too worried ordering one. After the bidding inched up a bit and shipping charges tacked on, it cost a bit more than what I agreed to with Dell, but the seller had it in hand (brand new) and ready to ship. So I got it. Hooray! And it was on the way.

Posted by Wayne at 12:49 PM | Permalink

Remember that cool digital camera I ordered back around Sept 15? Nope. Dell's not going to ship it to me. After making me wait a month and a half for the Canon Powershot S2 IS that I ordered, they simply cancelled the item with no interaction with me. I found out this morning and I was fuming. I would not be nearly so mad if all the Dell people hadn't kept telling me to wait for the item to ship. I think I'd had about 8 well-mannered people in India reassure me that the camera will ship, I just needed to wait for Dell to be resupplied. Originally, the ship date was Oct 17. That was pushed back to Oct 24. That was pushed back to Oct 31. Monday I talked with the Dell people to confirm I wanted to wait for the order, but today it was just cancelled without any interaction with me.

So I log into Dell's Order Status chat application and talk with someone named Silpah for over 1 hour. For my trouble, he offers me a $35 concession coupon. I don't bite.
After impressing upon him how angry and disgusted I am with the service I've received from Dell, he ups the offer to a $75 concession coupon. He also confirms that the shipping for the DVD+RWs I bought as part of this order will be free, instead of around $20. Finally I accept. Silpah says Dell couldn't do much else for me, since they haven't been resupplied with Canon cameras since early September (why not?), and they couldn't fulfill any camera orders. Maybe there are lots of people out there in the same boat? If so, I share your pain.

So now I have a $35 concession coupon for having to wait so long in the first place, and a $75 concession coupon for having the order pulled out from under my feet. $110 in Dell coupons, unfortunately, I have to use them separately on different orders. Blah!

Posted by Wayne at 02:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yes! Last week, a check arrived for about $130 more than I was expecting. This was great. I think what they did was refund me the full price plus tax of the brand new phone I bought. That's much better than just the original proce of my old broken phone. I couldn't imagne why they did this, but then I had an idea.

I bought a Sanyo 8300. My old phone was the Sanyo 8100, which is not sold in Best Buy stores anymore. So I effectively bought the closest thing to my original phone that I could find. I think they saw this, and decided that it justified refunding the full new phone price + tax.

So now I'm very happy. Thanks, Best Buy!

Posted by Wayne at 11:46 AM | Permalink

Saturday I fixed the car door in the rain, during one of the 2.5-hour runs for a program at work. The stereo will have to wait a while. So my car is again rain-worthy. That's been good, since it's been really dreary and rainy in Raleigh for the past several days. I know we've been way behind on rainfall, so this is probably a good thing. It also has begun to feel more like October. It's been in the mid 60's to low 70's a lot lately.

Posted by Wayne at 11:41 AM | Permalink

Two weeks ago (Sept 15th), I placed an order through Dell's website for a new digital camera. To my frustration, I found out the next day that the thing is backordered, and probably won't ship until October 17th. There was no mention of this anywhere when I placed the oprder! This makes me mad since I wanted my new toy right away. I looked online to compare prices with other places, and try to find it cheaper/sooner, with the intention of cancelling the Dell order if I found one. I soon found out how good of a deal I got with Dell. The camera's MSRP is about $550, but most places sell it for about $500. On sale, it might run around $460-$480, and don't forget taxes and/or shipping charges. The total price I agreed to with Dell was $401.68, so no other place could come close. I'd rather not pay an extra $50 to $100 to get the camera right away, so I decided to wait unless I found a really good deal elsewhere.

Here's a wrinkle. I found out Dell likes to keep customers happy so we'll be more likely to buy from them again. So I go online to chat with their people and ask if they can give me a discount or something to compensate me for having to wait. The nice guy offers me a $35 "concession coupon" toward a future purchase. I ask if he can also upgrade my shipping to a faster method, but he said he wasn't allowed to do that. So I take the coupon and feel a little better. Dell frequently runs sales on camera memory. I've seen a 1 GB SD card for around $45, so I may grab one of those soon.

Wonder how I found such a good price on the camera? Check out Deals 2 Buy. You have to watch for a really good sale. The last time I found this camera so cheap was back in June.

Posted by Wayne at 01:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

In short, I'm happier now. Here's the long version:

So to bring you back up to speed, my original phone (A) quit knowing when it was closed. The first replacement phone (B) had a bad ESN that couldn't be activated.

I got the second replacement (C) phone on Friday. They must have some trouble with quality control on these remanufactured phones. There was a screw on the back of the phone which wasn't screwed in quite well enough. This kept the screw cover from fitting into place, so the cover kept flopping off. I wasn't too pleased about this, so I called 1-888-best-buy and told them about my troubles.

I spoke with a nice lady who looked at my case file, and could see I've been having several problems with phone replacement, so she gave me another option this time. I could either 1) get a third refurbished replacement phone, or I could 2) go buy a brand new phone at Best Buy and write a letter to their corporate headquarters in MN about my troubles to have a refund check mailed to me for the purchase price of the original phone. Does that sounds familiar? It's basically what I wanted in the first place, with the small added trouble of having to wait to get the refund. So I took option number two.

Saturday I went to Best Buy and bought a brand-spanking-new Sanyo MM-8300, acrtic blue (D). It was a little more expensive than the 8100, but that's fine, it does lots of new fancy things. I should be getting a refund for about $250 for the old phone. I called Sprint and activated the new phone and now I'm all set.

Monday I fed-ex'ed the two refurbished phones in their prepaid mailers back to Best Buy in Copell, TX.

Hooray for persistence and good luck!

Posted by Wayne at 05:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I'm displeased with Best Buy. I used to like their PSP cellphone replacement plans, since they were so simple to use.

The way they used to work is this:
1) Your phone dies, etc.
2) You go to a Best Buy store and show it to them.
3) They give you a credit (purchase price of broken phone) toward buying a brand new (and usually better) phone.
4) You buy a new phone and activate it.

That sure was great. So last time I bought a phone there, I bought a replacement plan for it. To my suprise and disappointment, about 9 monthas ago they changed the way it works/sucks:

Here's how it works now:
1) Your phone breaks.
2) You call 1-888-best-buy.
3) You talk to a well-mannered but slow person in India, and explain the nature of your phone's trouble. They try to weasle out of replacing it by asking if you dropped it, or if there's damage to the outside, or the lcd is broken, etc (not in my case).
4) They agree to replace your phone with an identical refurbished phone, no upgrades allowed.
5) They Fed-Ex you the replacement phone, and you get it in 3 days.
6) You get the new phone, activate it.
7) You mail the old broken phone back to them in a pre-paid mailer.

The no-upgrade, refurb phone part made me mad. I also had trouble around step 6 above. Activating a phone should be simple, right? Hah!

So I call Sprint, and speak with a nice American guy who tries to activate my phone, but can't. He says the ESN # is the trouble. It hasn't been marked stolen or anything, and it's a good phone, but it's been labeled to a private Best Buy account, and I must get them to do something to activate the phone. Well crap, 25 minutes on the phone wasted.

So I call 1-888-best-buy. I tell them my PSP #, ESN #, and all my troubles, and that I'm very irritated about it. The well-mannered but unhelpful Indian man on the phone keeps me on hold 15 minutes while he talks to Sprint about the problem. Then he puts me back on the line. Apparently, the Best Buy warehouse people didn't mark that ESN as assignable, and NOBODY can activate it. I must now return the new phone and wait for another replacement phone with a hopefully good ESN. I tell him how irrritated I am at this, and how I feel they should give me something in return for all my trouble and waiting again for a new phone because of their mistake. He says no dice, the best they can do is replace my phone again as he said. Another 25 minutes on the phone gone forever, and 3 more days until a new phone.

This waiting for the new phone bothers me. I was told by the first Indian man that I would need to buy a new PSP for the replacement phone before the old PSP expires. If I don't, the new PSP would cost much more. My current PSP is about to expire, so I'm probably screwed. I'm not sure if I'd even want a new PSP at this point, with as much trouble as I've had, but still!

So yes, I'm upset at Best Buy. I cc'd a close copy of this entry to their customer support people to see what they might do for me. I'll let you know.

Posted by Wayne at 10:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We had a good time with Michelle and Erik last weekend. Of course, we took a few pictures. Annie got to play with Michelle's new dog, Tyson, and I think she really enjoyed that. Tyson is a 4-month old boxer, but he's already about the same size as Annie.
We drove all around town, and took a few pictures of the Duke Gardens and Chapel. We weren't able to go inside the chapel, since it was booked solid with weddings, also there were several weddings going on in the gardens while we were there. In my opinion, the weather was much too hot for an outdoor wedding, and I'm glad ours was inside.

Posted by Wayne at 10:02 AM | Permalink

I took a picture of this little frog way back when we hiked at Umstead Park last time.
Our friends Erik and Michelle from Knoxville will be staying the weekend with us, so we're looking forward to that.
Also, it looks like Dennis didn't totally ruin our plans for Florida, so we should still make that trip.
That's all for now.

Posted by Wayne at 03:53 PM | Permalink

Long time without an update, huh? I guess I haven't added anything on here for a while since I haven't posted any new pictures either. We've been doing normal random stuff, but nothing super-unusual.
We went out to Umstead yesterday morning with Annie, then shopping for a bit. I've nearly decided that I want to build some more furniture soon, so I'll have to start planning that. We're going to Florida for a few days soon, and we're really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, hurricane Dennis just rolled over the resort we plan to stay at, so I hope everything's okay there. Next weekend Michelle and Erik P are coming to stay with us, and see the house. That's about all for now.

Posted by Wayne at 10:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We went to see the Coconut Groove Band (Jimmy Buffett tribute) in downtown Raleigh tonight. Tri and Logan from Erika's lab came with us. The music was alright, but the crowd there was funny. With few exceptions, we were the youngest people there by 10 or 15 years at least. In general, the concert series targets the 21+ crowd since they let you bring alcohol (not in glass bottles) to the plaza where the concerts are held, Erika and I brought a 4 pack of Guiness. They check IDs and stamp your hand, and make sure you have the right type of beer containers. They had a big cart selling carnival food, so of course we had to grab a hot dog and cheese fries.

Posted by Wayne at 09:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We stopped by the Raleigh Farmers' market this afternoon, and I was pretty impressed. There were lots of people selling food they grew and plants to grow in your own garden. Erika spotted a lavender plant she liked at one of the herb booths, and we brought that home with us. The food prices looked pretty good, I remember they had pint containers of blueberries for $3, or 2 pints for $5. One man was selling young japanese maple trees for around $100 each. Are they usually that expensive? After that, we each spent some time at work. I'm finishing up my poster for the big conference next week, hope it goes well.

Posted by Wayne at 05:29 PM | Permalink

We haven't updated this much lately, sorry. But anyway, we took a trip to Greeneville, TN last weekend for Erika's cousin Christian Scheel's wedding to Heather. We had a full car with me, Erika, her brother Andy, and Annie.

On the way there along I-40, only about 25 minutes from our house, I hit a large metal flange in the road and we got two flat tires on the passenger side. I had been in the fast lane going about 70 mph, I quickly pulled off to the right and onto the shoulder. We're pretty lucky it didn't cause an accident.

Since I pulled off into the tallish grass, and apparently the hole in the rear tire was smaller, only the front tire looked flat. So I proceeded to empty the trunk to get the spare donut tire out, and I made record time and had it changed in under 5 minutes. Then I re-loaded the trunk and we started back out. We got about 10 feet before I realized the rear tire was now also flat. Great.

So We call up AAA and ask for a tow about 4:10. Maybe you know this, but AAA drivers will only take two people along in the tow truck. The 2nd or 3rd AAA phone rep we talked with informed us of this, and offered to call a taxi for us to get the remaining person. We also had trouble with AAA in deciding where to take our car. Apparently, they will only tell you about AAA-affiliated car repair places. I wanted to take the car to Sears, since we were very close to Southpoint Mall, and I thought Sears would be open past 5:00. Well, the lady on the phone refused to give me the number to Sears for several sentences, then finally gave me the number to some other Sears Auto place on the other side of Durham. I also found out that the previous phone rep who said she'd call a taxi for us never did, and we'd have to do that ourselves, but this rep did give us the numbers to two taxi companies close by.

So I call the wrong Sears and they give me the phone number for the right Sears, and we're in luck, they'll be open until 8:00. Then I call up the first taxi company, and it's some funny dispatch number where the person answering is very rude and hangs up on me. I try the second number, and the lady is nicer, but says they don't have any cabs to spare and recommends another taxi company. So I call this third taxi place, and yes, they can get a cab to us on the side of the interstate. She asks roughly where I am, and gets my number for the cab driver to call me back. Several minutes later, the dispatcher lady calls back and informs me that her driver can't call my number, and I should call him. WTF? So anyway, I call him, and he's not too far away, and after briefly explaining to him how the interstate numbering system works, he understands where we are. Good deal.

Now it's about 5:15, and we have to play the waiting game for the taxi and tow truck. Since I'm concerned about 10-year old Andy in the hot sun, we decided that he'd ride with Erika in whatever vehicle got there first, and I'd wait for the other one. He's pretty occupied with his Gameboy and given plenty of water, he doesn't seem to mind much.

Finally the cab shows up about 6:30, and Erika and Andy hop in the cab, and the driver's nice enough to let them take Annie along too (extra tip for him). As soon as they shut the taxi door, the tow truck shows up-wonderful timing! So I help the tow driver get the car onto his roll-back sled and we're off to Sears. He offered to take the car to his company's shop for a better price than Sears, but after checking he found they only had one of the tires we needed.

So we get to Sears, and The others are waiting on me there. Erika's prepped the service guys on what's going on, and they're ready to help us out. Turns out, it's nearly time to get new tires for all the wheels, so we decide to go ahead and do that and get an alignment while we're at it. They say it'll take an hour. So the question is, what to do for an hour at dinner time?

We take a short walk through the parking lot (with Annie) to the "Streets at Southpoint". It's an outside part of the mall, and we hoped the security guys wouldn't mind if Annie came along too. Nobody said a word, except for commenting how cute she is, and kids trying to pet her. The Q-shack we'd planned on eating at and several other shops were boarded up with black-painted plywood. It looked like they were rebuilding that section, but they didn't have any signs mentioning what was going on. I hope the Q-shack returns. So we have to get something to eat from the food court inside and bring it back to Erika who's waiting with Annie outside. We just finish eating and Sears calls that the car's ready. We head back, settle the bill, and we're back on the road about 7:30. We finally made it to Greenevile a while after midnight.

So watch out for big metal flanges on the interstate, especially if you're traveling west on I-40 close to mile marker 268.

Posted by Wayne at 02:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Hi everybody, this is Erika and I need your help. We have the Blockbuster movie pass and Wayne's going out of town for a conference soon, so I'm interested in getting together a list of good classic movies to watch while he's gone. So, submit your favorite classics, I'll watch some of them and let you know what I think.

Posted by Wayne at 09:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We both went into work for most of the day. Campus was pretty dead, as would be expected for a holiday when the Univeristy is closed. After work, we ran out to Home Depot and Target. I got parts to install a new shelf above the washer and dryer. It had become a bit crowded for all the cleaning supplies and things we keep up there, and there was plenty of room to add another shelf. So I installed that after TKD tonight. We also got some storage bins for the kitchen to keep Annie's food and treats, and several boxes of cokes. And yes, I'm from the part of the country where I say "coke" and I mean any sort of non-alcoholic carbonated beverage. I probably probably picked it up by going to restaurants and asking for a coke and the waitress asks "what kind?". Anyway, we had to get the bins since Annie learned today how to tear open the cardboard boxes and bite open cans. Today we came home to find a floor covered in Mellow Yellow and a very hyper Annie.

Posted by Wayne at 11:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Okay, get ready for this. Guess what's the latest American job to be outsourced to India. And what's worse, this makes an already super-annoying experience just a bit worse. TELEMARKETERS!
That's right, I got a phone call in my office at work today from a heavily-accented caller from India asking for someone I didn't know. After asking the caller to repeat the person's name about 4 times for me to understand what he was saying, I told him I didn't know that person, and he had the wrong number. He then became a bit agitated and informed me that perhaps he had "the right number, but the wrong name", and confirmed my phone number. He then proceeded to tell me that "as the owner of this phone number" I would qualify for some $500 prize. I stopped him right there and said "Please don't call us again, goodbye." And I hung up.

Posted by Wayne at 10:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This was fun. We went to the NC State Surplus Property sale this morning around 8:30. Apparently, we should have been there by 8:00 to get the really good deals, but we still did alright.
Erika's been trying to put togther a Linux machine from one of my old computers. Unfortunately, the computer she was going to use is so old that several parts are dying. Enter NCSU Surplus. It's basically a warehouse where all the equipment (good and junk) go after faculty and staff decided they don't need it anymore. There's lots of computers and office equipment, laboratory things like microscopes etc, and then furniture too. Imagine large wooden desks, all for $1 a piecce, office chairs from $1 to $3, computers from $1 to $100, large photocopiers for $50. I don't think they price anything over $100, and it's all cash and carry. I think some people are able to make a living from this, by carefully buying things and selling them on e-Bay or somewhere.
We however, just needed a few random computer parts to replace the worn-out ones. So what do we do? We bought two $1.00 computers (sans hard disk) that should collectively have everything we need. I don't think we could have found a better deal.
So if you're interested, the NCSU Surplus sale is only held 8-11 am on Fridays on Ligon St. in Raleigh. We learned the best deals go quickly. Some people even camp out the night before to be the first one in line. They hold a pre-sale viewing on Thursday mornings too, so you can make a list of what you want to buy. The whole thing's a little crazy, but it can be lots of fun.

Posted by Wayne at 10:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Tonight we went to see the Durham Bulls play baseball. We've never been to a ball game here before, so it was a new thing for us. The stadium in Durham is pretty nice. It looks pretty new, I'm not sure how long ago it was built. There's also a parking garage close by, so that worked well to hold lots of cars. I know my cousin Julie and her family have been to some games there before, and they liked it too. A UNC biomed student organized the game as a get-together. The Bulls beat the Pawtucket Red Sox 6-4. It was a pretty good game...the pitching was a bit lacking, but I guess that's why it's AAA. They also had $1 hot dogs and popcorn, so that was great.

Posted by Wayne at 10:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We went out to see the new Star Wars movie last night. It was pretty good. Definately a bit dark, and I wouldn't recommend it for easily-frightened kids, but it was good. We were talking about it today, how it almost gave you a sense of compassion for Darth Vader, after we saw everything he went through. And it did an excellent job of tying the prequels to the original movies, which I appreciated.

Posted by Wayne at 08:06 PM | Permalink

We went to a Tae-Kwon-Do class at the YMCA tonight. It looks like a lot of fun, so we're thinking about joining the club there.
When we lived in Knoxville, we both took Isshinryu Karate and we had a lot of fun. Unfortunately, we had been too busy with classes to think about taking any martial arts until now. So the neat part about this class is they have people of all ages in there. Young kids around 5 years, up to older guys in their 50s. Our previous karate class was only college-aged people and older. The class here looks like it's a very good environment to learn in, so that makes it much more welcoming for beginners. The only sad thing is we have to start out as white belts again. :/ But, I'd imaging it might be easier for us than for someone who's never done anything like this before. The small differences we've noticed so far are intersting. For instance, our karate class taught us never to lock any joints, but this TKD class uses forms that require that frequently. Also, little things like the side of the arm you block with, and the direction your fist is turned during a punch are different. I think it'll be fun to learn something new.

Posted by Wayne at 09:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

So we went to see Hitchhicker's Guide to the Galaxy tonight with a couple friends. It was good, I liked it. I think I've seen some of the characters, or something very much like this when I was much younger. It's kind of like how I rediscovered Monty Python when I was in middle school or so. Good movie, pretty funny, very original.

So we live in Raleigh, and it's May. What's going on with the weather? It's felt like February all week, and I'm about tired of it. Erika says it'll be warmer next week, and I hope she's right. I can actually tell a difference in the grass growth as a function of the temperature for the week.

Grades have started to come in. Erika did well in one of hers, I did alright in one of mine. I have one more exam on Tuesday, and Erika's done. She's very much enjoying that, and I'm happy that she finally gets a break from studying.

Posted by Wayne at 11:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I think Spring just decided to come along today. Yesterday was cold, windy and rainy, and today feels like late April. It looked like everyone around campus got the memo about it too; I saw shorts and sandals on lots of people.
I thought that was pretty funny. It's been my observation that most college people have about a one-day weather memory. If it's sunny and warm one day, they'll choose clothes accordingly on the next day, even if the weather man says we'll have feezing rain. So since it was nasty out yesterday, it suprised me that so many people wore warm weather clothes today. I guess my hypothesis has some flaws. Or maybe the idea of Spring was overpoweringly appealing for everyone. At any rate, it was a beautiful day.

Posted by Wayne at 05:21 PM | Permalink

Wayne made me type on here. I like Quizno's. Especially since they have Diet Mt. Dew on tap.

Posted by Wayne at 12:32 PM | Permalink