I have been a Netflix subscriber for a few years now.  I loved the convenience and low prices of the service since I was getting new movies almost everyday.  A few months ago, I switched over to Blockbuster and put my account on hold at Netflix.

Well on October 1, 2008, my account was reactivated and I was billed $17.94 on that day.  I put the account on hold thinking I would have account credit for when it reactivated (which was today).  But today, I was billed an additional $19.00 for the next month of service.  I called them up and asked for a refund for the $17.94 to which I was told they couldn’t do anything because I apparently rented movies during that time.  I told them to just refund my $19.00 and cancel my account.

I checked my email to confirm that I had put my account on hold on the 1st of October, and to my suprise, I was right (holy shit, I was right for once).  I called them back to tell them to recheck my records.  The nice lady on the phone informed me that the $17.94 was the price I paid to rent movies during the one billing cycle rather than for the 30 day period.  So I paid $17.94 for the little bit of bandwidth I used to go onto their site and put my account on hold.

I asked if they could credit my mom’s account the $17.94 since they failed to provide any service and they couldn’t even do that.  At this point, since they failed to provide any sort of service to me, but still took my money (I put my account on hold before they even shipped a single movie), am I allowed to dispute this matter with my credit card company?  I mean, its been 3 months since I’ve been charged, but I figured when you pay for a service and you use a feature they offer to put a hold on your account that you could use that credit towards the next time you start using the service again.

So I guess buyer beware, Netflix likes when you put an account on hold because they can charge you while providing you absolutely nothing at all.  I guess its time that Chase gets a call from yours truely to see if what Netflix just did was in any way legal (because its quite obvious that it wasn’t very consumer friendly!)

First off, happy holidays to all my blogger friends, I hope for those who celebrate Christmas that Santa was extra nice to you this year!  Anyways, this morning, I spent a bit of my time looking over TV shows that are returning in January and I must say, I am excited.  TV for me is a great way to unwind after a full day of classes and homework, it lets my brain just take a break while not being bored.

Anyways, ABC this year is looking especially good.  A couple years ago if someone told me that most of my favorites were going to be on ABC I would have laughed because NBC had one heck of a lineup which isn’t so true anymore.  ABC is bringing back Lost (a show which I just started watching a few months ago) and they picked up Scrubs from NBC.  Scrubs has for a long time been one of my favorite shows and I’m glad a major network saw exactly what so many fans see in the show.

Then comes FOX with 24.  I loved 24 up until the last couple seasons, but after seeing 24: Redemtion, I am pumped more than ever for this series.  If the writers of 24 fail me again, I guess it’s time I say goodbye to Jack Bauer for good and I have a feeling that most of America will feel the same.

NBC and CBS aren’t even worth my time, in fact, if it wasn’t for Life and the Office last year, I probably wouldn’t even tuning into NBC and lets face it CBS has sold its soul to the devil by making almost its entire midseason lineup reality show based.

Showtime is bringing back The L word for one last season, same goes with the finale of Battlestar Galactica on Sci-Fi.  FX is bringing back yet another season of Nip/Tuck, a show which I feel is just becoming too much with all the insanity.

Overall, it looks as though I’ll have plenty of good mindless entertainment even though networks have decided that the less expensive reality TV route is better for ratings.  The day I waste my nights watching people compete for love, survival, and weight loss is the day that I take my nice HDTV and throw it out of a 2nd story window.

My brother has played baseball for much of his life and right now goes to college and even gets a scholarship for both his talent in basketball and baseball.  While in high school, he was a starting pitcher (did they really have relief and closing pitchers in high school?).  Personally, I don’t know how fast his fastball is, but I sure know how to figure it out: a radar gun.

While you commonly don’t find amateurs using radar guns, they have many good uses other than to get you a speeding ticket, winning you a oversized stuffed animal at the fair, or finding how fast CC Sabathia can throw a fast ball.  I know there are certain times of the year where I wish I had one set up to record the speed of punk high schoolers who decide to use the road in my backyard as a spot to dragrace even though there are younger kids who live in the neighborhood.

The uses for amateurs when it comes to radar guns are practically unlimited and they come in all different specs.  If you’re into racing cars (the safe way thank you very much, stay the fuck out of my backyard!), you could even use it to clock your fastest speed at a closed track!

Anyone who knows me on a more personal level knows I was raised Christian but now consider myself to be an atheist.  Personally, I don’t understand the whole concept of calling yourself an atheist, but I do it for convenience sake.  The difference between me and too many other atheists is I really don’t care if you’re a believer in any sort of faith (except Scientology, but we’ll save that for another day).

I had a roommate once who challenged me on my lack of faith almost every single day.  Personally I think he did it so he could cement his beliefs into his head, which was alright with me.  The problem I have with that situation was he had no problem telling me every reason why he had faith but would practically cover his ears and scream while I explained why I didn’t share the same faith.

But on the other side of the issue, I was reading an article on Digg about a kid who’s head was nearly severed off and 3 months later he is practically back to normal and will be returning to school after the winter break.  I personally prefer reading the comments on Digg because some people make some pretty valid points.  Well as it turns out, the author of the original article noted that 20 churches were praying for the kid’s survival.  Anytime religion is in an article on Digg, the big bad atheists go absolutely nuts and laughed in the faces of these people with faith.

Honestly, I see nothing wrong with prayer and faith, especially in this case because it gave the family hope and allowed for a more positive attitude.  What I know is that the doctors who treated this kid saved his life, but without hope, the greatest doctors in the world wouldn’t have meant a world of difference.

I’m not proposing that we destroy any sort of religion, all I’m saying is we allow people to use their basic rights in this country to choose what they believe in without those beliefs infringing on others.  To those who feel the need to shout from the rooftops about their faith, all I ask is that you stop abusing your first amendment right and if a day ever comes that I feel the need to believe in a divine power, it becomes your responsibility to share then and only then!

Alright, I’m getting tired of PayPerPost and their inconsistencies.  I write a post and their ToS says that you’re not supposed to have paid links inside a paid post.  So how does that affect me?  Well on the first 3 posts on the main page and on each individual post page.

The problem I have is that 99% of the time, they don’t seem to care, but once in a while they can’t approve my post because of it.  Most of the time I resubmit it and it gets approved.  Now if I wanted to use PayPerPost as an advertiser, I wouldn’t be very happy to hear about their really crappy moderation system because god only knows what else they fail at.

On top of that, they force you to have original content between each paid post.  Wouldn’t it be better for both bloggers and advertisers if you just required a ratio of 2 original posts for every one paid post?  I mean lets be honest, some days I have a lot of things to talk about, other days, I don’t, but I still want to take advantage of generating revenue.  On these days, I usually write a crappy filler post about my life or something stupid I read online and only put in about 5% of my normal effort.  This makes me look bad and all those links advertisers just paid for will eventually become less valuable.

There are some alternatives which I’m considering switching to, but I really wish PayPerPost could provide a service that was better for both advertisers and bloggers.  Maybe it’s time to create my own service which will build up from bloggers simply trading reviews which eventually be expanded to support paid reviews for positive buzz and would be open to all sorts of websites.  Hell, I can honestly say it blows when I have to write positive reviews about a garbage website because in the end the only person who wins at that moment is myself.  A crappy business will eventually go out of business and I almost feel that a site that allowed for bad reviews would force these advertisers to better their business model!

Alright, I’ll admit, my mother has been nagging me for gift ideas for myself for about a month now.  The truth is, as I get older, Christmas seems to become more of a hastle than anything else.  When I was younger, I would give my parents lists that had items worth thousands of dollars on it and I would get yelled at for being unrealistic.  Now I make a list that consists of absolutely nothing and I get yelled at for that.

I will admit, I would love some new clothes and there is a kick ass watch I’ve been waiting to buy, but couldn’t afford it.  I’d ask for things like that, but I have no clue what my mom’s financial status is right now and I know if I ask for it, I’ll probably get it regardless if its in budget or not.

Anyways, I bring this all up because of the men’s cashmere coat selection I found at Sanyo today. I love nice clothes and as I get older, my jacket, shoe, and watch collection keeps getting bigger and bigger because I take better care of the stuff. I think now is the perfect time I transition into a more professional winter coat rather than my bright yellow Columbia I’ve been sporting for the past 5 years!

Alright, my alarm failed to go off this morning at 6:00am because my phone didn’t tell me it was low on batteries (don’t you love it when you have a full battery icon and then its just dead 8 hours later!).  Anyways, I flip out and run upstairs, ready to shovel all the damn snow we were planning on getting.

Well guess what people, Wisconsin fails at life and we have so much snow that everything is canceled.  Mind you, my phone still isn’t working and the truth is, no one is at work to tell me to come in or not, so I really have no idea.  When it comes down to it though, I need the money because without money, I am broke and when you’re living paycheck to paycheck, a single day of pay is a HUGE deal, especially when todays pay would be about $200 to sit there and sort folders (mindless work blows, they should be paying me more since they are technically torturing me and driving me insane!).

Anyways, hopefully I’ll be able to make it in for atleast a half day because I need to pay the bills.  If I don’t, well fuck man, anyone want to start a donation fund so I can recoup some of my loses for this blasted snow day?  You see what this job has done to me, it turned me into an adult, I hate snow because it doesn’t nothing more than cause more work and inconveniences!

Alright, I was reading about the Thermistor today because that’s what I do.  Since I am a mechanical engineer (alright in a semester I will be a degree certified Mechanical Engineer!), I have played with lots of different sensors while in school because as the school likes to tell me “I’ll be using them every day in my near future”.

Anyways, I found so many interesting facts about when thermistors were invented, how they work, and how they are used.  In the engineering world, they have limitless posibilities and thanks to engineering advances are becoming more and more accurate with time.  Now the problem with any good sensor is finding a reliable manufacturer and distributor.  Fortunately for you, I’m here to tell you all about US Sensor!

US Sensor has a lot of different sensors for your testing needs, but they have a huge selection of thermistors.  They have extremely accurate ones (remember, with more accuracy comes a higher price), your basic thermistor, surface mount thermistors, UL rated thermistors and many more.  There most accurate model can accurately read temperatures to 0.05 degrees Celsius!  To the average reader that might mean absolutely nothing, but to an engineer that just allows you to charge more when your all done analyzing your product!

Alright, this new digital transition is going to screw up everyone with OTA television.  Cable is on its way moving some of the more obscure less watched channels to digital only and said that it will eventually ax analog all together.  So what do we do?  I mean, we’re stuck at a point where all these old TVs will no longer work unless we have boxes connected to them and at my house, we have 8 TVs that are used on a daily basis.  Now luckily about half of those have digital tuners.

Personally, I just download most of my TV shows (illegally obviously).  Same goes with my movies.  But I love the Netflix Instant Queue on my 360 and I love how TV networks are offering their TV shows next day with limited commercials in HD!  What we need is more boxes that connect to the internet and can give you all your favorite network shows and movies in HD on demand with limited commercial support.  If you don’t like commercials, you pay a monthly fee.  This way, we kick cable to the curb and you don’t have to worry about setting up the antenna just right.  I mean, if we’re going to have the boxes, why not future-proof it by allowing for upgrades in software!

I’m a tall guy who has a family history of bad backs. I can pull something in my back pretty easily and I’m down for days which is unfortunate. Sometimes it gets so bad, I have to make an appointment with the chiropractor. If you’ve never been to the chiropractor before, it’s pretty difficult to find a good one in your area.

Well if you’re in the San Antonio area, be sure to check out a site dedicated to helping you find a San Antonio Chiropractor.  They give you advice on what to look for and what to watch out for when trying to find a specialist who won’t just screw up your back even more!