Obama in Tampa Today

I heard on the radio this morning around 5:30 AM that Obama was going to be touching down at Tampa International Airport any moment. He is scheduled to speak at Centennial Park in Ybor City. Ybor City is just off to the East side of downtown Tampa. It's a favorite haunt to go eat lunch or dinner and stroll in the evening and maybe go to a club. Centennial Park is not a very big park so I am curious how this is all going to work out with the people and parking. I was going to turn on my tv news and see if I could watch any of this but here I am just now thinking about it after hours have gone by doing trivial things in the house but mostly thinking of going to bed. I'm about exhausted from another week of a lack of good solid sleep. Tampa is becoming a popular spot of late since the RNC or Republican National Convention was here. I always visualize comparing Tampa to New York but we just do not have the land available here to become that large of a city I believe. The other day I was thinking that if Donald Trump were to come down and take a look at our Channelside area and buy the property that is folding and beef it up and get it rockin and rollin again, that would be a hit I think. If Channelside fails we loose big time in my opinion. It is an anchor especially with the cruise ship going in and out of there right next to it. I strayed from Obama but I hope his visit was nice and that he will come back again. Who are you voting for this time around? Have you decided yet? Are you overwhelmed with all the hype from each side? Can you make up your own mind or do you let others do it for you?

How to Fix a Broken Trash Can Pedal

Okay, over and over, I find people are finding my blog using the search words in the title of this post. A thought just occurred to me. Is it time to manufacture and sell a part or parts to fix this broken trash can. The thought of adding the picture of the actual fix I used that is still working great to this day has been on my mind many days during each week since I made that original post. But, now I think I will save that picture to include in the 'Fix a Broken Trash Can' kit. Here's a link to my first post on this repair including pictures. I have also decided that I WILL post pictures of the inner workings of this repair. This was decided as there are those that will want to try to do it themselves and then there are those that only want to buy a part to replace without all the fuss. I am thinking now that if I had one of those new 3D printers I could produce these replacement pedals but they probably wouldn't be cheap. Might be cheaper to just buy a new trashscan. I am laughing at all of this now as probably you might be too.

Online Storage Cost Varies

I just happened to check what GoDaddy had to offer as to online storage. Even though they have been in the news this week with some type of outage. One story said it was hackers, another said it was a problem at GoDaddy. Who do you believe and who cares. Everyone has problems today. So, here is what I found and I hope to be adding to this list as time goes on. Dropbox comes to mind but I have not liked them from the start as I thought their cost was too high. *GoDaddy - $2.49 a month - 100gb - Deluxe package, $1.99 a month for 10gb A better value over time I think has to be your own network attached storage device at your home. See my previous posts on that. Here is just one product from Netgear.

Vizio Handed Off My Product to the USPS

I am not happy today. Seems I am not happy each day I wake now from one thing or another. And it is all because of the people in the world not doing their job or theft. I ordered one of those streaming tv boxes from Vizio back in the middle of July. I waited patiently for it to show up on my doorstep. But after over a month and clicking on the link to the Fedex tracking number and seeing that the delivery stopped in Miami on August 20th, I made a call to Vizio. This was a few days ago. I talked to a nice lady who said she was going to reprocess the order which I assumed meant they were going to send me another one. Today I wake up to a voicemail from Ricardo saying to call Vizio if I have not received my Costar product. Okay, I knew this was going to suck. I checked my doorstep, no product. Why did I even waste my time opening the door to look. So I sat down and called Vizio. Vanessa checked everything and said she was making some kind of 'warehouse request'. I asked what that was. I was told it was to research where my product was. Oh great, how long before I need to call you back when I have not heard anything, again I said. Give it a few days, maybe Tuesday or Wednesday since this was the weekend. Sure, okay. Another few days. It has been how many months now and you got my money but I have no product. I liked Vizio but on my first call to them I was told that Fedex had handed off the shipment to the USPS in Miami. I asked if this was normal. Yes, a lot of companys do this. I had never heard of this. I am used to seeing the Fedex and UPS trucks drive around my block almost daily and they deliver right to my door and hand me the product. This was most unusual to me to hear this. I have had so much trouble with the USPS misdeliveries to my house, you can read about it in my previous posts. I could scream about now just thinking of how crappy the USPS service has gotten. I hear of them cutting back more and more now. It is no wonder the service is getting worse. I hope the little guy in Miami is enjoying my product now, or, maybe in Tampa. Who the hell knows. May the USPS go down in flames is all I can think of right now. The US government needs to think seriously about closing the service down and selling off or handing off all mail service to Fedex and USPS. Thats all I am going to say on this today. http://www.vizio.com/costar/overview?utm_source=digitalmedia&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=Co-Star&utm_content=Google Thats the link to the product I paid for and have not received in case you were interested. 10/07/2012 - Update - I called Vizio a few days ago to get an update on the status of the 'Costar' product that I ordered. Basically I was given nothing new and not much hope. 'Wait and call back in a couple of weeks to check on the status'. I let the rep know that I would probably be filing a dispute with my credit card company to get my money back. I think I am being extremely patient with this. After all, it is now October 7th and I ordered their product somewhere around the middle of July. Three months ago now. I swear, I will never order nor probably ever buy another Vizio product. Don't get me wrong, I'm stitting here watching their fifty five inch LED t.v. that I bought almost two years ago and it is still looking fresh and new. Once a company pisses me off, I hold a grudge forever. Enough said on this for now. 11/13/2012 - Update - I called Vizio and was given information that the refund I had requested was processed. I logged into my bank account and saw that the refund was indeed credited to my account on October 30th. Thank God. I can now put this terrible problem to bed now. I will from now on ask any company that I do business with if they hand off shipments to the USPS and if so, I will take my business elsewhere. Vizo just lost a customer with this stupid idiotic practice and they also lost inventory because of this. We learn something every day do we not? Update-01/10/2013 - have eliminted any profane or obscene wording from this post.

Chase Slate, Opt Out of unsolicited mailings

Alright, enough is enough. A few years back my bank was swallowed up by Chase and I had a five per cent cd there. I had missed a renewal/cancellation date after the five year period and had to leave this note another year at their terribly low interest rate or suffer a penalty greater than a year worth of interest. Okay, since taking the money out of and closing this account over a year ago I have been receiving their mailings offering me a balance transfer to their credit card account with regularity. So regular that it began to cause me grief at just the sight of seeing another solicitation in my mailbox. I have not tracked it to days but seems like twice a month I get one of these. I have been shredding these checks because you do not want them to fall into the wrong hands.
Now, today I decided to take the time to search the web on how to stop these Chase Slate mailings. I came across a link to their website with opt out steps. I saved the end screen shot showing the URL for you to see. The only problem I have with these opt outs is they are only good for five years. Whoever is responsible for that I would like to break their damn neck. When I opt out of something I want it permanent. I do not want to start getting this crap all over again and then have to struggle with wasting my time to have to figure out how to stop it again. There needs to be a law on the books that the perpetrators need to put the opt out link on their mailings or suffer great fines. This will be my next quest to find out who will write and push this through our halls of congress. Are you not outraged enough already like I am with this junk? You should be and you should be pitching in to help like I am. So, get off your duff and opt out now, with everything that you do not want. I will write more on this in the future. Now, get going.

Update: 9/14/2012 - Fri. - Received another mailing with 'balance transfer' checks. I know there are some of you that would love to get another chance to put off paying on debt but I am one who pays off any balances on anything at the end of the month or when billed. I think I paid enough to banks over my younger years and I do not want to pay them another cent if I can possibly help it. Other than mortgages of course. There is just no way out of paying monthly on a mortgage unless you happen to be handed a large sum of money for some strange reason or from some loved ones death. So, I have another Slate Chase J.P. Morgan mailing to shred again today. I have just about gotten my USPS mail weeded out of all the junk with the exception of the local crap that keeps coming. Update: 10/30/2012 - I may have missed updating this post a couple of weeks back now. But, yesterday I received another mailing with these balance transfer checks. In the shredder it goes. Screw you Chase Bank! UPdate: 1/4/2013 - Another mailing yesterday from these turdheads. I guess my opting out is not working. So much for that idea. What does it take? Into the shredder again with this junk. "Cardmember Information Enclosed' printed on the envelope. Yeah, sure, right. Like I have no idea what is in that envelope. I am not even a member. WTF? These banks are all alike. I have no account with Chase any longer so what is so damn important. Hah, important that they get my business back of course, but, that will never happen again. There are too many other banks that deserve my business now.Screw you again, Chase Bank for not respecting my wishes. Update - 1/10/2013 - another unsolicited Slate invitation today. Same wording, 'Cardmember Information Enclosed'. Into the shredder...

Update-01/10/2013 - have eliminted any profane or obscene wording from this post. Update-02/16/2013 - received another mailing of offer checks...shredder revisted today! Update-06/07/2013 - I know I have received at least two more mailings but I have not gotten around to posting the exact dates received. Probably not worth the time and trouble that I am doing this. I just shredded another mailing just now. I have been researching bank credit cards lately and it's looking more and more like the Bank of America Cash Back card is the way to go now with the money you can earn back into your account to be paid toward the balance. I just need to make the plunge and go after it I guess. 06/15/2013 - I have read the fine details on a Chase $200 cash offer to open a new bank account and have decided one and a half percent on my cash for six months is terrible. I can do lots better with real estate. Chasing after these little bits of money is not worth my time. Am still on the fence with the cash back card though. Still considering. Am also considering moving all of my credit union business to Chase. The credit union touts how much it benefits it's members but I really do not see any benefits and I have looked it over and over through the years. Hell, to get a mortgage on a house costs more than some banks I have applied with. I have tested this out twice now. Another Slate mailing received on 6/12/2013, into the shredder with it.

RNC and Tampa Bay

Are we lucky to have this convention in our fair city? Some would think so. Others possibly not. I for one do not know what to make of it all. One thing for certain though is there is a lot of preparations being made. With security at a heightened alert now it is going to be almost impossible to navigate downtown one would think. The police presence will be unbearable I feel and anyone stopped for a car search and who knows what else I wish you all the best. I cannot wait to hear read some of the stories that will come out of this next week. Many people are looking for how they can make money off of this event. Most citizens that are able will be offering their places up for rent and making a the most of it. For the visitors though there is plenty to see and do in Tampa. Bern's steakhouse will be a favorite I can bet. The locals will be sure to offer suggestions to the best of the best that Tampa has to offer. So, if you are reading this just ask anyone and you will get a kind response to your question. I have watched Tampa grow from a small town starting back in 1963 when I moved here as a young boy. I played on the interstate when it was being built as it was right in my back yard when I was in grade school. Those were happy days. I never thought I would see the congestion of traffic and people that we have here today. Of course I saw animations and cartoons depicting our cities of the future jamming to a cluster and everything coming to a sudden halt. Hopefully I will never see that happen. Other than the negative side of things there is a lot still to be hopeful and smiling about. So, let us enjoy while we can. Come to Tampa and you may never want to leave.

Phone Companies Losing Broadband Subscribers

Having just read a news article online about this headline leads me to post my opinion on this. Do a search on Google for the article or articles on this today. Yahoo Finance is where I read this story. Here are some facts that are not pointed out in the article. Some areas of the country and maybe your neighborhood do not have FIOS fiber to your home. You are only able to get DSL High Speed internet over the phone company land line or copper lines. Or, the other option is maybe you have a second choice and that is cable. A cable modem then would be the wiser choice as it is faster than DSL High Speed over copper. I know this much from experience. I have had all three and now am using the not the fastest, but fine with me, Verizon FIOS 35/35 connection and I am happily satified with that for now. I do not download or stream movies to watch on my computer monitor. I am sure I would not have any trouble though with my current connection Other than all that I am sure your budget will most likely dictate to you what you will be willing to afford. As far as a monopoly goes I would have to say that if the phone companys and the cable companys would allow each other to offer the others services I would venture to say it would not make much difference in the dollar grabbing landscape. The problem is though it is mostly a one way street and the advantage is for the cable company as the cable company cannot offer the FIOS speeds over their cable system. So, the phone companys would be disadvantaged to say the least. These headline grabbing news articles do not go far enough to point out all the facts. Probably because they just do not have all the facts and do not understand fully what they are writing about. With this I end my diatribe today and wish you well in selecting the best internet connection that satisfies you best.