Minneapolis on a rare, gorgeous Fall day

This is the view from my audit room in Minneapolis. Last week it was cold and raining every day, tomorrow is going to be in the 40s, but today is 70 and sunny. Sure, I'm inside all day, but at least my view is nice.

I've got a question for FEMA

The Washington Post is reporting that the press conference held by Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson, the deputy administrator of FEMA, was completely rigged. The reporters at the press conference lobbed softball question after softball question at Johnson. If this seems a little fishy to you, considering the press's distrust of FEMA, you're right. It turns out that the "reporters" were FEMA's director of external affairs, deputy directors of external affairs and public affairs, and possibly a press aide. (Apparently the Washington Post isn't so sure on that one)

FEMA denied all of this though, right? Not at all. One of the fake reporters had the following to say: (From the article)

But the staff did not make up the questions, he said, and Johnson did not know what was going to be asked. "We pulled questions from those we had been getting from reporters earlier in the day." Despite the very short notice, "we were expecting the press to come," he said, but they didn't. So the staff played reporters for what on TV looked just like the real thing. "If the worst thing that happens to me in this disaster is that we had staff in the chairs to ask questions that reporters had been asking all day, Widomski said, "trust me, I'll be happy."

The elusive deposit: The final chapter?

In the last chapter, I wrote about filling out the stop payment form, having it notarized, and sending it to the management company. Here's the rest of the story...

Two days later, I got a call from the management company. The manager told me that she got my form and forwarded it on to the bank branch manager for processing. That's good. But later that day, she also got my security deposit check returned from the post office. That's sort of good.

Of course it would work out like that. It's all well and good that they managed to return the check, but they managed to return the check right after I signed an affidavit swearing that if I received the said check, I wouldn't cash it. So I asked her to call the bank and straighten it out and I picked up the check later that day.

The manager wasn't in when I picked up the check, so I couldn't confirm that the dispute had been closed. The following day I was too busy to call her. So finally, today, I got the chance to call and confirm that she spoke with the bank manager, the dispute is closed, the stop payment has been ripped up, and I'm free to deposit my check.

So tonight I'm going to deposit and begin the waiting process. I'm not going to believe this whole ordeal is over with until the check clears the bank.

On the hunt for my deposit: an update

About 2 weeks ago, I wrote about my lost deposit check. Well, I got back from a week in Minnesota and my former management company never received the returned check. According to the USPS's website, my deposit is still floating around somewhere between the first and second delivery attempt. I called the management company and had them fax me the form. Luckily, I found a list of notaries in my office and there are a bunch to choose from. I filled out the form, had it notarized, and sent it on to the management company. We'll see where it goes from here...

New Phone

I was going to call this post, "I'm officially that guy," but I'm still in denial about that part.

Last week I switched to AT&T and got myself a blackberry. My number is the same, but for those of you using Verizon, I'm no longer in your network...

Monkeys kill Delhi deputy mayor

The deputy mayor of the Indian capital Delhi died on Sunday after being attacked by a horde of wild monkeys.

SS Bajwa suffered serious head injuries when he fell from the first-floor terrace of his home on Saturday morning trying to fight off the monkeys.

The city has long struggled to counter its plague of monkeys, which invade government complexes and temples, snatch food and scare passers-by.

The High Court demanded the city find an answer to the problem last year.

One approach has been to train bands of larger, more ferocious langur monkeys to go after the smaller groups of Rhesus macaques.

The city has also employed monkey catchers to round them up so they can be moved to forests.

But the problem has persisted.

Culling is seen as unacceptable to devout Hindus, who revere the monkeys as a manifestation of the monkey god Hanuman, and often feed them bananas and peanuts.

Urban development around the city has also been blamed for destroying the monkeys' natural habitat.

Mr Bajwa, a member of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is survived by his wife and a son, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.

Why would anyone use cheaptickets.com?!

A few months ago, I asked the same question of hotwire.com. This time around, it's cheaptickets.com that has earned my scorn.

Molly and I have been watching the travel sites waiting for the right time to buy tickets home for the holidays. Early Saturday morning, we found that right time and purchased two tickets through cheaptickets. (via kayak) At 11:37am, I received an email from cheaptickets that said:

This reservation request has been sent to the airline(s). Final purchase is pending until we receive confirmation from the airline(s). Once that confirmation is received, usually within 24 hours, we will update your travel document.

Ok, I thought, no big deal. I bought my tickets through cheaptickets, so now they have to turn around and buy the tickets from the airline. No problem, right? I mean, how long could it possibly take to electronically purchase some tickets?

At 10:02pm, nearly 12 hours later, I received this email:

Dear Valued Cheaptickets Customer,

We regret to inform you that, due to limited availability, the airline was not able to confirm the flights you requested. Therefore, no tickets have been issued for this trip and your credit card has not been charged.

Situations like this are rare; however, when they do occur we attempt to contact our customers immediately as to avoid missing out on advance purchase opportunities.

To help you understand how this situation could occur:
Cheaptickets is a full service travel agency. Our advanced search engine searches two billion fares within seconds from over 450 airlines. Our secure on-line booking system accesses fares and availability from the same central reservation systems that other travel agents and airline reservation agents are booking from worldwide. As you can imagine, with the extensive volume of agents booking flights at any given time, availability for a particular flight can be gone in an instant. Therefore, when your ticketing request reached the airline, availability for the flight(s) you selected was no longer available.

The confirmation e-mail that you may have received is only an acknowledgement that the flights you selected for purchase have been sent to the airline for approval prior to ticketing and does not guarantee ticket issuance.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and thank you for your understanding. We appreciate your business and look forward to serving you in the near future.

Please click on the following link to make your new reservation http://www.cheaptickets.com

Sincerely,

Cheaptickets Ticket Advisory Department

Seriously? Well, maybe the flight wouldn't have sold out if it didn't take cheaptickets 12 hours to book the flight. Maybe next time I will use those "other travel agents and airline reservation agents" because they seem better able to do their job. They have got to be kidding with that link at the bottom of their email. I'm against hotwire.com because I think the idea behind their booking system is just stupid. I'm against cheaptickets.com now just based on principle.

Where in the world is Ross Sandiego

So I've been really busy for the last few months, (hence the lack of any activity on this site) but this week has been fairly light, so I've had the chance to make some posts on here. Part of the reason I've been incommunicado is the amount of traveling I've been doing. I thought I'd share some of that travel with you, so I prepared a handy map. The size of the Sporky pencil topper is approximately proportional to the amount of time I've spent in that city. (Click the map for a bigger version)

How much does crack cost? $25

This is an old story at this point, as it happened back when I was working in Connecticut, but I suppose better late than never...

So a little while back, I was commuting to Greenwich, Connecticut every day for work. It was a bit of a pain in the ass. My commute went something like this: Walk a mile to the subway. Take the subway up to Harlem, 125th street. Walk a block to the Metro North commuter railroad station. Take the train for about 45 minutes up to Greenwich. Walk a half a mile to my office. Total round trip commute: About 4 hours and 3 miles walked.

The important part of this story is the one block jaunt through Harlem. I made this walk at 7:30am each morning and around 8pm each night. The crazy thing was that Harlem was a lot worse in the morning.

Occasionally I would stop at the 'carb wagon' located outside the metro north station. This is a mobile cart that sells bagels, donuts, coffee, etc. I stopped to buy a bagel one morning and there was a line of people at the cart. I was 4th in line and the woman in the front seemed to be buying in bulk, so it was taking a while. I amused myself watching the pair of crackheads in front of me. One girl looked like your stereotypical crackhead. She couldn't have looked more like Dave Chappelle's interpretation. Actually, she looked a bit like that character mixed with Flava Flav. So anyway, I was standing there watching them when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw another shady looking character walking up holding one of those zipper bank bags. It caught my attention because who walks around Harlem with a bank bag? So anyway, this guy walks right up to the alpha crackhead and says, "I got 3 for $25 for you." She pulled out $25 and he handed her a little bag with three white rocks in it. I was witnessing my first crack deal at 7:30 in the morning on a crowded street. He took her money, she took her crack, and they both walked away. She must have been so excited to have more crack that she forgot that she was waiting in line. The woman in line behind me started freaking out and screaming about how they should be ashamed of themselves for buying drugs out in the open. Not for buying drugs, but for buying drugs out in the open.

I was now 2nd in line (since the crackheads left) and I had my bagel within a few seconds. I turned to head up to the train station and noticed two cops standing not 10 yards from the carb wagon. A lot of good they did...

I did that commute for about a month and I actually witnessed two drugs deals and was offered something for $4, but I had no idea what it was that I was being offered. At this point I don't remember what the guy even said to me, but I googled it and looked it up on urban dictionary, but it wasn't there.

So there you go. That's my crack story...

US Mail. When you absolutely, positively got to lose every piece of mail in the room, accept no substitutes.

As you probably know, I moved out of my old apartment at the end of August. What you may not know, however, (since I didn't write about it here) is that I had a number of problems with my management company, with my super, and with my building. I was more than happy to vacate the property, but I was a bit worried about getting my security deposit back. (Shades of Madeline here)

So I moved into my new place and started waiting for my check to come. And then I waited some more. Then I called my old management company and they told me they'd mail it out the following week. The following week came and went - nothing. I called back and they told me they had mailed it. A few more days went by - nothing. I called back and this time they gave me the USPS tracking number. They had sent it by certified mail, so luckily I had a way to track it... sort of.

I went on the USPS website and it told me that the letter had been mailed on the date my management company said it was. It also said that there was a delivery attempt the following day, but no one was home, so they left a notice. Then, nothing. See, here's the thing, I never got that notice. And the second delivery attempt that was supposed to have been made 5 days later? Yeah, that never happened. The website makes no mention of a second delivery.

So I went to my local post office, tracking number in hand, and inquired about my missing certified mail. I spoke with a low level mail jockey, but quickly realized that I was getting nowhere, so I asked for a supervisor. The supervisor was better dressed, but that was about the only improvement. Both employees scoured their mail room, but neither could find my letter. After a solid 20 minutes of discussing my issue and searching for my letter, the supervisor told me that the letter was indeed missing and there was no way for them to track it down. You see, what I can see on the USPS website is the same as what the postal employees can see in their computer. The supervisor told me that he could see the first delivery attempt, but for some reason, no second delivery attempt was made. The computer had no information about where the letter may be held or even what address it had been sent to (or from).

Here was his final thought: "What I think happened is that they accidentally sent it to you with the 10075 zipcode. It probably went to the wrong post office as a result and you wouldn't have gotten the delivery attempt notice."

And this was my response: "What the hell are you talking about? My zipcode is 10075 and this is the freaking main post office for that zipcode. Where would it have gone if not here?

He tried to explain that my zipcode was not 10075, but actually 10021. I guess I need to explain here that a few months back, a big section of the city in the 10021 zipcode was divided up into 10021, 10075, and 10065. My apartment falls into the new 10075 area. He was insisting that I was actually in the 10021 area. But the kicker? There was a giant map posted in the lobby of the post office showing that not only was my apartment in the 10075 zip code, but it was as far from the 10021 section as you could possibly get. This guy was totally worthless.

The post office had lost my certified letter and had no way of tracking it down. It was time to call my management company back. I told them that the post office lost their check and asked if they could put a stop payment on it and send me another one. (Or better yet, let me just come pick it up) They told me that there was a problem with that, as my deposit was a bank-held security and therefore the check had been sent directly from the bank. I was told I'd have to call back the following Tuesday since Monday was a holiday and the manager wouldn't be in until then. Tuesday came and went, but I was too busy to call.

Now it's Wednesday and I had a minute to call. I spoke with the manager at the management company, explained the situation, and asked for a new check. She told me that in order to get me a new check, we'd have to do the following:

She would have to call the bank and request a form from them. They'd fax it to me and I'd fill it out and have it notarized. I would then mail it to the management company and they'd fill it out and also have it notarized. Then they would send it back to the bank and they would stop payment on the old check and issue me a new one, but they may or may not charge me a fee for doing so.

The post office had told me that if the letter wasn't claimed after 15 days, they would return it to the sender. That's assuming that it isn't lost though. The 15 days are up next week, so I'm going to wait it out and hope it just ends up back at the bank/management company. If not, we'll take it from there. This is completely asinine, but I'm not the least bit surprised that this is how I'd end my relationship with my management company.

More details to follow as they arise...