shame on you, wamu

a washington mutual saga:

• bought a glut of computer parts at the end of september. shipment was delayed due to mismatched address. huh.. i switched my address over in may 2006 with no problems. whatever. resubmitted the orders.



• tried to buy a separate LCD monitor. same problem: address didn't match. i couldn't seem to buy anything else online, either.. my card wasn't being accepted.



• visited wamu directly. they told me my problems stemmed from my debit card expiring in november, and that they sent out a new card oct. 1.



• waited three weeks. worried about chicago's craptastic mail system misdelivering my card, or perhaps losing it entirely.



• visited wamu again. this time they told me two things:
  1. somehow the active period on my card for my old address had been changed from 2004-2006 to 2004-2056, trumping my current address; and
  2. they never sent the new card.
  got them to fix the address mess and get the new card sent.



• tried to get money yesterday from two different machines. both told me 'unauthorized access.' had to put off buying new gaming headphones, not to mention getting cash (without huge fees), paying for things, etc. until my new card arrives.

thankfully, the new card was in my mailbox when i got home. but what if it hadn't been? my CTA card's almost empty, my wallet's packing nothing but flies, and i sure as hell ain't carrying around checks with me. and if my card had been put into the wrong hands, say so long to my bank account. fucking anyone could have activated it. they don't ask for anything person-specific, just for you to call from your home number (which i didn't - i used my cell, which still worked). besides, the old card shouldn't have been deactivated until the new one was active anyway. thanks, wamu, you should know better than this.

the Zeusaphone

here's one of those instances where i find something cool - not just kinda cool, forgettably cool, but intensely, blow-you-away, kick-my-ass cool. i was researching brass instruments on wikipedia in a move that will hopefully become apparent soon, when one of the related links pointed to something called a 'zeusaphone.' in a nutshell, it's a tesla coil engineered to produce sounds with every discharge of electricity. oh my jesus, is it cool. i guess it was just invented/discovered this year by a U of I electrical engineering student. (woo illinois! and such) a description would not be complete without the appropriate visual aids:



there's also a more linear youtube vid with two (2!) coils playing out 'dance of the sugar plum faeries.' i'd totally pay to see this; this guy should do a tour. ..except maybe he should skip rhode island.

the universe can stop shitting on me now

earlier today i wrote about how i poured almost a paycheck's worth of money into a new gaming rig. i bought all the stuff through newegg, which is pretty much my go-to for all things computer (now that fucking comp usa up and left). i come home from work tonight to find an email in my yahoo inbox. it's more than just a 'we received your order and it's in process.' it's more of a 'there was a problem and we need you to verify that your shipping information is the same as what your card has on file, even though you've ordered plenty of stuff with us before through the same card with no problems.' now maybe this is my mistake, since i can't check yahoo at work and now have to wait a whole extra day, but.. no. it's THEIR fuckup. this is $1200 worth of merchandise they're now sitting on for no logical reason. and i put a rush fucking order on it, too, so i'd have it in time to game for the three-day weekend. four days left, fuckos.

next item of business in karmic fuckery: the cubs game on wednesday? you know, the first game of the post-season, of which the cubs (the cubs!!) are a part? 9 pm CST start time. so i get to watch about an hour of it, maybe an hour and a half, before i have to sleep. brilliant decision there. i know programmers and the MLB are counting on nationwide cubs fans to stay glued to their sets until midnight, but come the fuck on. that's just not fair. and what about people on the east coast? talk about screwed. how can you appreciate the adrenaline of playoff baseball when your eyelids keep drooping? dumb.

finally (for now), i was flipping through my handful of HD channels i can get over-air with my antenna. one of my favorite discoveries when i first got my HDTV was a channel called The Tube. it's kinda like how MTV used to be, back when they actually played music. all videos, some old, some new, most i hadn't seen in forever ('orange crush,' anyone?). i just saw a commercial on WGN for the Tube last night, advertising it as 9.2 on your digital stations. that's what made it so unbelievable that when i flipped to the Tube just now, i was greeted by a screen that said it was now off the air. a trip to their website confirms it. what the fuck? i can accept that it's off the air (give me a few days, though.. that really sucks), but why show a commercial a day before yanking it? why bother? 'there's this cool music channel out there that you might not know about, and guess what? you never will! hahaha!'

i don't fucking get it.

dangerous living

last night was very special. i did it. i took the plunge. it'd been a few years coming...but i finally got around to buying parts for a new computer. i feel so much better now. (well i would if i'd gotten a decent sleep last night.)

only about $1200 all told. however, that's before i drop more coin on a flatscreen LCD monitor (i'm thinkin' 19", or whoever has the best deal) and, naturally, games. i've done this twice before.. the morning after is usually spent still sifting through computer websites, hoping desperately that i made the right choices. we will see in a few days!