Nibbles of this and that

[susandennis]

I have applied for insurance through ehealthinsurance.com. I had to fill out a form and mail it. I did. They didn't get it. I called earlier in the week and talked to 3 different people and was shocked at how helpful and friendly they each were. I was actually a little confused by it. Why were they so helpful and friendly????

But, now I know it was apparently that day's water supply. Today I called to ask about the process. What is the next step and when can I expect it. The first woman I talked to could not have been more snotty. "We just got your application" "Well, actually, the email you sent indicated that you got it last Tuesday." "We got it on the 8th which would not be last Tuesday. Last Tuesday would be the 1st." This went on for a while until finally she said that I was yelling at her and she couldn't talk to me any more. I hung up and called right back and got a nice woman who answered my questions. She wasn't over the top like the koolaid people of the other day but she was fine.

I wait.

And, speaking of waiting, I am not happy about a printer/scanner I ordered. I got it off this website that I've been watching for a while and it looked like their shit was together. Apparently their 'get the money from the credit card' shit is together but their 'get the product to the customer' shit is a little stinky. I got a tracking number finally yesterday after I sent an email asking but it's a FedEx number and it's not showing up on their website yet. So who the fuck knows when I'll see the damn thing. I do know that I am likely not going to be placing any more orders with Woot.com.

I'm going to blunch today! My father was a huge fan of brunch. But, he was also a huge fan of the cocktail ritual and one reason he loved brunch was the pre-brunch bloody marys. So often brunch would run late and he merrily dubbed it blunch.

But today's blunch is different. Fran (of Northwest Notes and patio_cats fame) invited me and Jim (of Jim Carson and jimcarson fame) to a blogging lunch! Jim works in the building across from mine and we are going via Microsoft shuttle to Fran's building down the road and blunch. Fun, eh?

Mom is really kind of a mess. She has now been in bed for a week on, apparently, some pretty strong pain stuff. Some days I get one short email from her and some days not. I call her every morning and she sounds more pitiful every day. Every day she tells me she is getting better but her voice is weaker and she makes less sense. She says she's content and not bored and happy to be taken care of. But, it's sad.

Please, please, please let me be hit by a truck long before I get to where she is now. I'm ready now if that's the alternative. Really. When it comes to me, I'm a huge fan of euthanasia.

And, actually, there are others on my list, too! The DooDoo yesterday told me that neither he nor his staff of developers had any time to help me with a simple scripting issue. An issue, I might add, that he caused.

Periodically, I need to do 4 search and replace operations on every file in one single folder. The search and replace parameters never change. The folder never has more than 20 files in it and the files need to be just saved back unto themselves. I can accomplish this feat by loading all the files (xml files) into Front Page and using 4 different saved search/replace routines. But really, that's stupid and a waste of time.

I will find a way to do it and I will rub his doodoo nose in my findings.

And, because I know many of you are only hanging around for the latest in designer news... Last night I had a litter box epiphany! The litter box is currently on the floor of the closet in the bedroom. This is a bad place because litter dust gets on everything. Last night, thinking about Sheri's plans for the place, I thought of four different locations for the litter box - all disguised beautifully and none of them in the closet. I'm very excited about solving this issue.

Now it's time to get to work.

Comments

[susandennis]

So you can see how I got sucked in, can't you?! I think I'm going to have to stop watching.

[geordie.livejournal.com]

Doesn't sed do that sort of line editing stuff? I know it's a unix thing but cygwin has it and that runs on PCs.

Your remark about being knocked off by a truck reminds me of my brother's first guide dog, Wigg. But I'll post that on my own page.

[susandennis]

I don't know about sed... Lots of stuff does the line editing but few do multiple different strings on multiple pages - in one swoop.

[geordie.livejournal.com]

Erm, I'm no expert, I edit other people's scripts to do different changes sometimes. I think you'd need three commands to do the three changes to all the files. But they'd read like encrypted data ;-)

Hmm... never one to avoid a challenge. Apparently perl can do it:-

perl -p -i -e 's/this/that/g' filename

Where filename can be a wildcard

Oh, here's a set of standard answers

http://sunportal.sunmanagers.org/pipermail/summaries/2003-June/003876.html

[geordie.livejournal.com]

I forgot to say, I usually check www.bizrate.com before I buy from an on-line vendor, so far I haven't had a bad experience with someone they recomended. I learned the hard way about two years ago when I was buying my first PC parts and found a place that billed you then ordered from another supplier and sent them on at added expense when they arrived. Currently I mostly use www.zipzoomfly.com but I never bought a printer from them.

[susandennis]

I knew about bizrate but never been there before. Just went now and couldn't find woot.

[katbyte.livejournal.com]

I am waiting breathlessly for my next design fix. Cat Box didn't quite satisfy, but it is something.

Another woot.com datapoint

[vixter.livejournal.com]

I received my $35 mp3 player in about 3 days. It works, but they apparently saved money on documentation writing. But I'm sure the skimpy docs are the result of the company that built it, not woot.

An example of the skimpy documentation: They forgot to mention in the paper that came with it that it recharges off the USB cable and you should charge it for 10 hours before using it.

But on the whole, I'm happy with woot.

About your scripting stuff: that's something I could help you with. Can you access perl? Or python? perl is probably more likely to be available where you are.

Re: Another woot.com datapoint

[susandennis]

Wow. I'm glad to hear about your Woot experience. It gives me hope. Fed Ex still isn't even acknowledging the tracking number now two days later. Sigh.

And aren't you nice to offer your scripting help! I don't think, as a contractor, I can get to anything like perl or phython but as a programming bubble head, I really wouldn't know for sure! I did find an interesting piece of freeware today that looks like it will do the trick if I can noodle out how to set the search parameters. Thank you. I'm always thinking about you and your Mom.

[kyrielle]

Run far and fast, re that insurance. Seriously - if even ONE of them is that rude to you when you are trying to PAY them money, what can you expect but incompetence and/or torment when you are trying to USE the insurance?