some time ago, i wrote about my concerns regarding the take-over of the DVD-by-mail subscription service i was a member of offered by VHQ Online by its only real rival in Canada, Zip.ca.
well, the first few months of the changeover were relatively smooth. yeah, i didn’t like Zip’s queue system, but they do have a great feature called ZipRefill in which you log onto their website to tell them when you’ve mailed a DVD back to them and they forward you the next in your list right away.
they warned us VHQ members that, eventually, the 3-DVD plan we were subscribed to would be phased out. i didn’t change any of my preferences in the vain hope that they’d reconsider such a silly notion. well, i got an email this last week which has put the nail in the coffin of my relationship with Zip.
not only are they removing the 3-DVD plan (yet, you can subscribe to the 1-, 2-, 4-, 6- or 8-DVD plan. huh?), but they are also instituting a $2.49 per-DVD shipping & handling charge if you exceed X number of rentals per month.
for example, on the 2-DVD plan, you start paying S&H when they send you the sixth DVD that month (the 4-DVD plan starts charging on the twelfth). so, if you were like me last year, watching all three DVDs they sent me every week, i’d have had to pay shipping for at least three discs every month. that’s another $7.47 each month, effectively increasing the monthly fee to $27.42, not the advertised $19.95 (before taxes).
i’m really annoyed with this whole situation. true, i haven’t been watching nearly as many movies in the last six months as i was previously, so i probably wouldn’t be affected too severely by the excess S&H charges, and you can set up your account so they warn you before they ship the Xth disc that you’ll be billed so you can say no, but for me, a person who hates paying shipping for anything ever, this is a total slap in the face.
so, here ends my love affair with DVDs-by-mail. it’s been great while it lasted, but from here on out, i’m walking across the street to Blockbuster if i need to rent a movie.
i was just sitting here, chin in hand, clicking and waiting and clicking again through the morning routine, my eyes heavy, my face slack, without even the small amount of energy needed to reach mere inches to take hold of my coffee in hopes it could wake me when my eyes wandered to the little time display in the corner of my computer screen and i realized just how ridiculous is it to be up, out of bed, dressed and actually be expected to be productive at 7:45 in the morning.
on the topic of eating out now that i’m back “on program”:
hessie: i just have to train everyone to eat sushi ’cause i can eat lots of that for very few points. =)
Dor: good luck with that.
hessie: yeah, i’ll need it.
Dor: you shouldn’t even be allowed to say you eat sushi, since you don’t eat the raw fish and you only eat a subset of the other stuff.
Dor: there should be a different word for that.
hessie: i eat some of the raw fish!
hessie: well, the partially cooked fish.
Dor: new word.
Dor: hushi.
Dor: heather’s sushi.
hessie: hah
hessie: perfect.
Dor: get people to eat hushi and you might do better.
after the pot with the oil on the stove caught fire and the full bottle of diet pepsi rocketed itself off the coffee table onto the livingroom floor, i wondered why i even tried to get out of bed yesterday.
today isn’t looking much better.
but, today is the day serenity comes out on dvd and i’m going to get myself a copy. yes. yes, i am. seeing it three times in the theatre just isn’t enough for this fangirl.
point form because i’m both really lazy and quite busy:
– the baking, she has been done.
– between 9:30pm friday and 6:55am monday, i did not exit my apartment.
– pizza hut’s new sicilian pizza is greasy, but quite good.
– dante called last night.
– i received my first-ever parking ticket friday afternoon.
– drunken men in their fifties seem to be drawn to kissing me at the pub.
– i found the dvd-by-mail i’d reported as lost in transit under a pile of stuff on my desk. oops!
– i performed surgery on my video card, replacing the moaning fan. now i can use the big computer again. yay!
– friday night, aaron douglas of battlestar galactica was at my pub, sitting not a dozen feet from me. by the time i worked up the courage to send him a drink, he’d left. ohwell.
– one more thing: who wants to go see jeff tweedy with me at the commodore on january 31st?
yeah, i know. i’m a broken record:
“i’m SO tired.”
“i have SO much to do.”
“i SO don’t feel xmassy.”
“i STILL haven’t baked anything.”
i can’t help it if they’re true.
i made chili for our potluck (which might suck, since i never got a chance to taste it). i wore a skirt to colene’s work party (which didn’t suck at all). i’m wearing one of my two holiday-themed old navy shirts (suckless). i don’t have any plans tonight, so i can go to bed early and hopefully catch up on some sleep (score!).
backstory: one of my co-workers is a certified fitness instructor. she uses the fitness room here at work to have different classes twice a week, which is where i go to pilates. i started going last year, so when we had a little lunch last december to thank her for offering these classes to us, i didn’t know that the girls exchanged gifts as part of the tradition.
fast-forward to yesterday: it was the day of our little fitness gratitude lunch and we were all safely hid away in a conference room upstairs, eating some freaking amazing greek food brought in, when, much to my horror, out came the gifts. HOLY FREAKING GOD IN HEAVEN. i’d completely forgotten about the gifts. i felt awful. i still feel awful. if nothing else, just the fact that i have to give these women something will get me baking this weekend. they’re all small tokens, nothing elaborate at all, but i feel like such a schmuck for forgetting. i’m thinking some ginger cookies and maybe a photocard. hey, when in doubt, make it yourself, right?
i’m not afraid of death; i’m afraid of the dying.
three things:
1. dante asked me to be his date on new year’s.
2. he kissed me. three times.
3. i’m going to invite him over to watch clerks and see if he’s as appealing away from the beer.
honestly, i’m just thrilled with the possibility of a kiss at midnight on new year’s. everything beyond that is gravy.
work was crazy productive today, but the odd hours have messed up my internal clock. so, i’m going to watch grosse pointe blank until i can’t stay awake any longer.
have i mentioned my new glasses, besides making everything so nice and big and clear, make me look SO DAMN GOOD. holy crap. i’ve never been as gorgeous as i am when i wear them. i may never take them off!
up too late at music bingo, tired today.
boys + alcohol = wandering hands/sloppy kisses.
work + ass = kicked.
the hair needs to be cut.
there are no pants to wear to work tomorrow.
where are my new glasses?
dante hasn’t phoned.
my camera misses daylight.
work is killing me. dead. killing me dead. dying. ugh. *gasp*
*sputter*
tonight boasts a 90% chance of music bingo at the pub. this will serve to resurrect me.
if there is no music, no bingo and no pub, then i guess i’ll have to hope that baking mint chocolate chip cookies will bring me back to life.
hope for the pub, though. i need beer.
oh my god! did you know that there’s this incredible network of trains and busses all over this city moving people ALL DAY LONG? it’s incredible! all you do is get on one of these vehicles, sit and some time later you arrive at your destination! it’s amazing! whoever thought of that is a freaking genius!
yeah, okay. i took transit work today. the roads were questionable due to icy conditions so i decided not to even bother risking the stress involved with driving. 75 minutes later, i walked into the office. not bad, really.
while that first bit is pretty over the top, there really is a part of me which finds the whole transit system rather amazing. i’m like a wide-eyed child when i take the transit to work. i’m looking at everything and enthralled by the whole experience, mostly because i hardly ever do it.
the only wrinkle is the going home tonight. i wanted to go shopping on my way home, to pick up all my baking supplies. now i’ll get home just in time to head over to my optometrist and get my pupils dilated. who wants to take me to the pub after that? did you know that dilated pupils and alcohol make for fun visual effects?
maybe it’s just because i need more sleep. maybe it’s because of all the work stress going on lately. maybe it’s because it’s the first of december and i don’t know where this year has gone. maybe it’s because it’s always dark when i get home. maybe it’s because i’m just plain moody.
whatever the reason, i feel really delicate today. like i need to be treated gently, to be sheltered, to be held close and protected by someone who loves me.
i could go on, but really, it’s all been said before.
dear diary,
today i awoke to a blanket of slushy, white glop covering the world. i couldn’t take the bus because my achilles tendon is hurting, so i drove to work; and you know how much i hate driving in snow.
but, i did it anyway!
stupid ankle.
things were going really well until i got to the big hill in burnaby. that’s where the 5 of “2 to 5 centimetres” happened. i could no longer find clear asphalt for my tires. oh, the anxiety!
i slowed down to 40 km/h, annoying everyone behind me. hey, if they want to die then they can go ahead and pass me. motherfuckers. but, i want to keep living my life (especially now that my bedroom is sexxy and i have a real coffee table in the living room), so i shifted into granny mode.
some asshole tried to cut me off. i would have honked, but i couldn’t pry my deathgrip from the steering wheel.
somehow i made it to work, early even, and now i’m just waiting for the granny commute home. this is really putting a crimp in my afterwork shopping plans, let me tell you.
have a great day, diary. keep warm!
love,
heather
since i’m all about giving it up to the universe to provide me with what i ask for, these are the things i’m asking for:
– the gingerbread suitcase by sephora
– nikon 50mm AF 1.8 D lens
– blue, automatic mazda3 sport (air optional)
– the most comfortable and good-looking sofa ever (in fabric# D330428, tobacco)
– dresser (in antique stain), to match my bed and hold all my funderpants
– matching bedside table, for the other side of the bed (hope springs eternal)
– ipod nano (white) or a used/refurbished ipod mini (with itrip)
– replacement for my 20 year old alarm clock i found one!
– coffeemaker, so i don’t have to drink instant any more
– a sweet, sensitive, attractive, caring, sexy boyfriend
– a kitten *purr*
i thought it would be funny to have this entry title and then just leave the body blank, but there’s probably someone who wouldn’t get it and say “hey, your post didn’t work” or something and then i’d have to kill them for being so dense and, even though i think i really need a regimented existence in which someone else is in entire control of all my daily needs (food, exercise, entertainment, shelter, etc) and prison would totally fit the bill, i don’t think i’m quite ready for a tattoo or to be someone’s bitch, and, really, i just don’t think i could live without my daily dose of starting over which makes me think i really should have left this entry blank because i can’t believe i just confessed to the internet that i watch that show every day.
even my new red funderpants, magazine hair and perfectly made eyes couldn’t woo my midas manager today. i knew it was a bust when he didn’t pass my test: he didn’t remember my name. oh well. i guess mr. chris isn’t my mister after all.
at least my car no longer has funky noises coming from both its front and rear. all no charge.
yes, virginia, it’s all about the silver lining.
i find it interesting that since celebrating my one year anniversary of getting my D70, i’ve barely taken any photos.
i’ve complained about this before, both to the internet and live people, but i’m feeling really blocked creatively. i don’t feel like i’m seeing things in a unique or interesting way and i certainly don’t feel like i’m capable of conveying anything i might see with my camera. i look through the photos on flickr and i see all this stuff which is so amazing & beautiful & technical and i think a combination of “well, i can’t do that” and “it’s already been done, so why try to imitate”.
there’s an amazing opportunity coming up for me to share a table at a christmas craft fair at my dad’s social club. i could start testing the water to see if my photocards have any marketability. jeremy’s expressed keen interest in a series of holiday themed cards, but i don’t have any holiday themed photos to make them out of. while down in america, jen and mel suggested i go into the stores with holiday displays and photograph them for my cards. i totally balked. at all of it.
if i really want to try to make this, if not profitable, a cost-matching endeavour i really have to stop being so afraid of failure. if i don’t even try i can’t possibly succeed.
i can’t be shy about telling you all that i have a store at which you can order prints, cards, calendars with my photos on them. that i’ll put up any photo you like in whatever form you want from whichever site i have, you just have to tell me what you want.
selling myself is not my strong suit. maybe i need a shill.
it’s sad when you have to choose between getting a haircut and buying groceries with your last twenty bucks before payday. i chose groceries, by the way.
this comic sums up how i’m feeling right about now. i’ve too much to do, both at work and at home. i’m starting to stress myself out about it all. i know i need to just breathe through it, get all zen and stuff, but it’s hard when you’re prone to OCD tendencies as i am.
today, i am 33 1/3 years old. get it?
i have decided that i’m not going to even attempt to read the wheel of time books until mr. jordan has wrapped it all up with a neat little bow. at which time i will re-read the entire series from start to finish. it’s eleven books long so far with three million characters in two million locations. there’s no way one can keep up when the books only come out every two years, so i’m no longer going to try. take that, robert!
one word: ponytails.
day three of nanowrimo and i still haven’t typed a word. yeah, i’m really glad i told the internet my intention to participate only to FAIL MISERABLY right out of the gate.
last night’s foray into americaland with jen and mel was a complete success. i accomplished my four goals: buy underpants (red!), buy bath & body works (pearberry!), buy method (peppermint vanilla!), eat taco bell (fiesta burritos!). it was a real treat to not be the one driving, too. thanks to jen and her geo j’lo we three had a lovely evening of mass consumerism, topped by a little cross-border tivo smuggling to raise the adrenaline levels a touch.
i even took a moment to ask the canada customs officer a business-realted question about her uniform. yes, i’m that much of a dork.
now i’m well-stocked for at least another half a year, maybe longer. although, the discovery of diet cherry vanilla dr pepper and ben & jerry’s “everything but the…” may precipitate a quick trip accross to stock up before xmas. mm, ice cream.
and just like that, my calendar is practically full for the week. i’m not even sure how it all happened. it’s so difficult being this charming and popular, i wonder how i’ll survive it.