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PS - The opinions expressed in this blog are just opinions and personal preferences regarding the way I view life in general. Nothing in this blog is meant in any way to provide professional advice or guidance (no matter how good my opinion is) - seek a professional for your professional needs and just come here for entertainment and occasional tidbits of useful (again - my opinion) information.

Monthly Archives: September 2009

I’m not cut out for exercise

So…last night I am sitting on the couch in the later evening watching my recording of The Biggest Loser. As they pan from the tippy tippy toes to the top of the head of one of the larger guys my six year old looks over at me with some of the biggest eyes I have ever seen and says”WOW” -  that’s all, just that one word and I silently nod.

After putting said six year old into bed and grabbing a beer and my Jimmy John’s sandwich (oh so yummy) from the fridge I settle back into the crook of the couch with the remote and press play to watch the rest of my program. So they are having a challenge, a CUPCAKE challenge and everyone is doing so well. Some are smelling the cupcakes (how do you just smell a cupcake without taking a lick?) and only two ate any! All I can think is…”I want a cupcake” – doesn’t a cupcake sound good, one with sprinkles?

At the end of the program they get up on the scale for the weekly weigh-in. Now I am not so silently wondering “How did these people get so big?, Don’t you notice? I glance over at the table next to me and see my balled up sandwich wrapper and two empty beer bottles and the fat fairy slaps me on the side of the head – “THIS is how you get there!” I make a resolve, I AM going to start working out…tomorrow.

I have nightmares all night long, I wake up several times thinking – “Oh God, I have to work out tomorrow” and then as the clock creeps slowly toward the waking hours of dawn “I have to work out TODAY”. I am already finding excuses, “I didn’t sleep well, I have too much work to do, I have to sit around with a fire extinguisher at the ready in case the house starts on fire.” (I was REALLY reaching).

The time comes when I can avoid it no more, the children are all at school, the dog has been let out and it’s just me and the TV. I pull out the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred DVD (You know, the woman that tries to KILL people on the show) that has been in my collection for a couple of years now. I have watched it a few times while sitting on the couch in fast fast forward but that is the extent of my time with this workout DVD.

It takes me almost 15 minutes to figure out how to use the XBox 360 remote to get the DVD started and I make it 7 minutes into the workout DVD before I died – I think I actually may have died. My eyes were closed, it was dark, I could hear the blood rushing to my head, I could hear myself breathing inside my ears and some crazy lady was saying “just keep it going” from a far away distant place.

When I regained my senses and realized where I was I started to laugh – what the hell was I doing? Leave it to me to go full steam ahead from the get go. Tomorrow maybe I will try a leisurely walk?

PS – I hear that lady in the living room winding down her workout and asking me “Don’t you feel better now?” I sure do!

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Check your website against several browsers

This is a tool I have often used for my own website and for those that I have helped design. I never thought of sharing until a friend of mine, who created a site for her husband who is running for a local school board position (jeffsimon.org), posted a link to her husbands site and the formatting was off when I viewed it in my browser (which she did not have). I pointed her to browsershots.org. This is a fantastic tool for those who create their own websites and want to see what will be viewed on browsers other than their own. Here is the blurb from that site…

What is Browsershots?

Browsershots makes screenshots of your web design in different browsers. It is a free open-source online service created by Johann C. Rocholl. When you submit your web address, it will be added to the job queue. A number of distributed computers will open your website in their browser. Then they will make screenshots and upload them to the central server here.

When the screen shots are uploaded you can download them and open them for viewing on your computer or save them to send to the person who created your site to fix any errors.

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Office Nap Zone

  • September 28, 2009 – 7:08 pm
  • Posted in Random Photos
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Office Nap Zone

The cat found a place to nap in the new office space after I so “cruelly” changed the CRT monitors to flat panels and removed the cat perch which as you can see in the picture below he had outgrown, and not by just a little.

cat-perch

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VersaCheck and G7 Productivity

Had an interesting exchange with the VersaCheck “Customer Service Department” this morning, enjoy and beware if you have contemplated using this software…

—–Your Support Request—–
Request #: 222483
Name: Sonia Rae Warmack
Email:sonia.warmack@comcast.net
Phone:763-208-7137
Subject: General Question
Issue Description:I wanted to let you know that I was extremely disappointed when I purchased this product and discovered that unless I purchase toner and blank check stock from you that I will have to deal with annoying pop up boxes every time I go to print. There was NOTHING about this requirement when I purchased the software. I bought your software on a recommendation from a friend after trying another check printing software so I already had the printer, toner and 5000 sheets of blank check stock. You should have a disclaimer about this requirement when purchasing software.

Dear Sonia Rae Warmack,
No disclaimer needed. You either click through the validation screen or purchase just the validation codes from our website. Or, purchase our check paper. We will not support the check paper you have that it will read at banks and stores.

Thank you for using the G7 PS Account Manager

G7 PS Customer Service
Email: customerservice@g7productivity.com
Phone: (858) 675-1095
Fax: (858) 675-0579

Issue Description:you say no disclaimer is needed on your response but that is not advertising that you will have to click through several annoying validation screens EVERY TIME a check is printed – I would not have purchased this software if I would have known that requirement

Dear Sonia Rae Warmack,
All you have to do is click the mouse button twice and you are through it. This is why we put the validation process into place.

VersaCheck Validation directs our customers to follow bank rules for check printing and also acts as a supplies tracking system.
Because our software creates checks that run through the banking system, there is a liability issue if we do not direct customers to follow American Bankers Association (ABA) and Federal Reserve Board requirements. You can still print checks without entering the codes but we can say we have done our part to ensure customers are following bank rules. Because we do not manufacture other brands of check paper and Magnetic ink/toner, we can not validate that other brands are bank compliant.

Issue Description:Clicking a button twice 10-20 times a day is frustrating. I understand the why but apparently that doesn’t matter as much as you say since I can “buy” a code that will let me bypass that requirement for a small fortune. All I am saying is that the requirement “either buy our paper and toner or purchase a validation code or you will have to click on annoying pop up boxes EVERY TIME you print a check” should have been mentioned at some point in the purchase process – if it wasn’t a complaint you wouldn’t have the option to purchase a validation code – which kind of makes the whole “validation” a misnomer.

Issue Description:Oh – and PS – I get one last “pop up” after I choose print letting me know that I am out of check prints so that makes three total pop ups I need to bypass. And since I often hit print and head off to some other task during printing I need to walk back each time to answer that pop up that I always forget about, since it does not always pop up immediately – annoying!

Dear Sonia Rae Warmack,
At that point when it asks you if you would like to add more. If you say No. It will still print.
Dear Sonia Rae Warmack,
You may purchase validation codes from our website. You will need one for ink and one for paper. once these codes start running low. You will need to purchase more. The validation process does not need to be told to anyone. 90% of our customers, purchase the correct paper and ink from us and have no problem. The remaining 10% uses our program without any complaints by clicking through the validation screen.

Issue Description:I understand it will still print. I understand your point. I understand your point. What I want you to understand from a consumer standpoint is it frustrating when all of the stipulations to using the software are not disclosed at the time of purchase. I do not want to have to click through two pops ups before I can click print and one after EVERY TIME I want to print a check. This information was not disclosed at the time of purchase. Whether or not you feel as if it is a big deal does not matter – it is a big deal to those of us who print hundreds of checks per day. To say that 10% who don’t purchase paper and ink from you without complaint is a misstatement – I am complaining. I know of others who have also complained which is why you started to offer a separate validation code purchase (this was not always an option) but the amount you charge for that is ridiculous. I will no longer recommend your software on my website and in my blogs.

Dear Sonia Rae Warmack,
We would disclose it, if this program would not print at all without the codes. It will print. Yes we recommend that you use our check paper and MICR. This way we know you are compliant with the federal law. If you are not going to use our check stock or MICR. We cannot support those checks to be read at the banks. Then you will click next through the validation screen to get it to print

Issue Description:”We cannot support those checks to be read at the banks. Then you will click next through the validation screen to get it to print” – UNLESS you want to pay for a code – then we will forgive that you don’t use our products for validation, isn’t that what you mean?. It is a crock and there are HUNDREDS of complaints on the internet. This was not always a requirement of this software – it is now purely for profit. Do with it what you will – the conversations between myself and “customer service” are posted on my blog. I am clearly not the only unhappy customer.

Dear Sonia Rae Warmack,
We would disclose it, if this program would not print at all without the codes. It will print. Yes we recommend that you use our check paper and MICR. This way we know you are compliant with the federal law. If you are not going to use our check stock or MICR. We cannot support those checks to be read at the banks. Then you will click next through the validation screen to get it to print. We started the Validation process 2 years ago. The Standard Bank industry. Wants us to make sure our customers are compliant. If you choose not to be, that is your choice. Thank you for your input.

Issue Description:”If you choose not to be, that is your choice.” Just because I choose not to purchase products from you does not make me non-compliant. I purchase both my check stock and toner directly through my bank at a significant cost savings over what you offer. I guess technically that would make me “more” compliant – getting it directly from the source. It is always good business practice to insult your customers, it is appreciated.

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The People’s Court

  • September 18, 2009 – 10:42 am
  • Posted in Random Musings
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So it’s sales tax time again and I am DRAGGIN’ my feet. I have so much work to be done but The People’s Court is on in 30 minutes, that is court for the people, people!. Do I really want to start a project just to stop and see what wonders of the world Judge Marilyn Milian has to offer me today?

If you missed the episode on Monday is was a lawsuit regarding a naked maid service. Naked people cleaning a house! Let’s just stop and think about this for a minute. Naked…mostly good, someone else cleaning my house….definitely good but together? not so good. Just imagine some of the positions you get into while cleaning the toilet. Do you really want to see someone doing that NAKED! and the germs and the places they could creep into? (or as my six year old would put it, bacteria) – Oy!

Here is a direct quote from the preview for today…“He came home with crack so I shredded his clothes and he blew up my dining room!”

Can’t wait, can’t wait, can’t wait!

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Breakfast-Ice Cream and Cookies

  • September 17, 2009 – 11:00 am
  • Posted in Just Me
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So in one of most stellar mommy moments I fed my six year old Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream and Chocolate Chip Cookies for breakfast. Now, in my defense, this was HOMEMADE ice cream so I know exactly what was in it. I am almost willing to bet it has less sugar than the Coco-Roos he usually chooses. AND I did make the cookies with whole wheat flour.

Totally reminded my of the episode of the Cosby Show where Cliff gives Rudy cake for breakfast which is taken from a Bill Cosby comedy routine.

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and why do you ask?

So…I pick up  Ethan, my precocious 6 year old, from school the other day and he asks “Are you going upstairs?” and I respond, “No, not right now” and then he says “No, I mean are you going up stairs pretty soon?” and I say “I don’t know, maybe. Why?” and he says “I am going upstairs and I want to be alone” So I say “Well go in your room and close the door and you can be alone” and he says “WELL, that is what I was going to do but I don’t want anyone else to be upstairs” and I say “Why? What are going to do that your notsupposed to be doing?” and he says “Never mind , I’ll just go in the living room and watch TV” Now I have to wonder, what the heck was that kid planning on doing and do I really want to know?

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