Vox Lucens

I can’t make up my mind. I cannot decide whether I’m really dull for not researching sooner, or really smart for seeing through the haze without researching.

I explained some of what I’m talking about in the last post. After writing that, I went out and had even more big fun.

You see, there were a number of other sites that offered good deals on the camera I was looking for. In looking through them, even before I placed my first order, I was struck by their similarity, especially in their credit-card-processing pages. That similarity was my first inkling that I might be dealing a slightly-less-than-aboveboard company.

Misgivings aside (since I was using a credit card with full fraud protection, if worse came to worse), I placed an order with another of these similar looking entities (Express Cameras). The deal wasn’t quite as good, but I figured there was little I could lose in trying.

I should take a step back here and note that I was smart enough to be cautious before placing any of these orders. For instance, there was no indication on these websites as to whether or not a battery came with the camera. I called one of them and was told it did not, and the batteries on their website were vastly overpriced, so I found a great deal (and a legitimate one–imagine that!) from another place and ordered my batteries there. I figured, to give these “companies” the benefit of the doubt, that they legitimately made money on the battery after selling the camera at-cost. I was smart enough not to fall for that one.

With that background information, we can proceed. Yesterday afternoon I got an e-mail from “Express Cameras” asking me to call them and confirm my order. (Notice the similarities to the first order? Don’t forget about that…) So I called them, and I got some guy on the phone who must have been sitting on a chair o’ nails. That is the only thing I can think of that would make a person so rude. He started with the normal stuff–identifying the camera I ordered, etc. Then he asked what battery I wanted. I told him I didn’t want one at all, that I had already gotten one from another company.

Sounding completely exasperated, he explained to me that I couldn’t use the camera without a battery, and why on earth would I buy one from somewhere else? “You have cameras at good prices, and batteries that aren’t,” I told him, “So I bought a battery from another source.”

“No, we sell everything cheap!” he corrected me. I was sick of arguing, and said with a good deal of firmness, “I. Do. Not. Need. A. Battery. From. You.”

At that point he was done. He tried to hang up, but I stopped him. Remember the deal with expedited shipping from the order before? I wasn’t going to let that slide, so I asked him whether that $40 I spent would mean that I got the camera in two days. “I don’t know,” he told me. “You’ll get an e-mail from shipping.”

As you can probably guess, I wasn’t satisfied. As he was hanging up–again!–I told him to wait. I talked over his repeated assertions that I would get an e-mail from shipping and said, “Do you have this camera in stock? Can I at least expect it soon?” He told me they did have it in stock, and hung up before I could ask anything further.

I was ticked. Ticked enough to do research. And what a treasure trove I found! I’m not the only one that has dealt with these people. “Bait and switch” is the name of the game. I called them back, and carefully canceled my order.

Here is where it gets fun. I checked my e-mail a couple minutes after that, and found one from “Express Cameras” (that must have come before I called to cancel) telling me that the camera I ordered had been oversold, would not be available for 6-8 weeks, and that they were canceling my order. Obviously this was the result I wanted, but it got me thinking. I would be willing to bet that they send this e-mail standard to everyone who refuses to buy their overpriced batteries and memory cards. If you don’t take the switch, you don’t get the bait, either.

That was a long story, and you are to be commended for bearing with me. I hope that you are as amused as I by this prolonged weirdness. It has a happy ending, though I paid more than I wanted to, and I have my new toy from a reputable dealer.

I am, as yet, a horrible photographer, but that has not stopped me from turning out a number of masterpieces (which I am calling my magnum opiates) so far. I would like to share those with you.

Self-Portrait

“Guy’s Night Out”

My collection of lifesavers from the USS Legal Education

” Still Life of Justice on a Black Background”

“The Thrill of the Hunt”

Ranting & Raving, that is.

I hate it when someone goofs me over. I hate being taken advantage of. And what might be worse, I hate falling for scams or even psuedo-scams.

After a good deal of price-shopping today, I decided to make a rather significant purchase. I found a good deal, one that the seller (”Best Price Cameras“) indicated came with a number of accessories, and one that had highly reasonable two-day shipping. I gave them my order, my credit card info–amazed at the amount of weird technical requirements they put on it all (like validating my shipping address with my credit card–has anyone else heard of that?)–and gleefully went my way.

I got a call a few hours later from an upbeat-sounding gentleman who wanted to confirm my order. Confirm we did. I gave him my credit card security information, listened patiently as he told me I had to call my credit card company so that they could ship to my office address, told him that I had purchased batteries from another source. When I told him there was nothing more that I needed from him, he began the “goodbye” procedure, telling me that I would have my camera in two weeks.

“Two weeks?” I said. “No, no, I paid you $24 for two-day shipping. I should have it Wednesday, right?”

“Oh, no,” he told me. “This item is on backorder. You can get it in two weeks.”

After confirming he was serious, I began to wonder just why he hadn’t mentioned this before. He had all the other information about my order, and must have seen my expedited shipping request (which is important to me), but just *failed* to mention the backorder. It made me suspicious, so I asked, “What about all of the other stuff that was listed on the website as coming with the order? Is that still coming with?”

“No…..” he said. “You didn’t purchase a package. Just the camera and the lens.” At that point I had enough–this deal wasn’t that good, and I was feeling seriously scammed by false promises of free stuff and two-day shipping. So I said, “Alright, let’s just cancel the order.”

It is no exaggeration to say that it took him less than one second to say “yourorderhasbeencancelledgoodbye” and hang up the phone. I’m still not sure if I’m happy he gave up that fast or annoyed that must be really used to people cancelling when they hear the whole story.

And now I’m back to UCC. UCC, that is, accompanied by Hitchhiker–it helps to ease the pain. It helps a lot, actually–the only thing that would help more is a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster.

(And it must be admitted, studying Article 9 and secured transactions is infinitely more interesting when watching the scene in which Humma Kavula removes Zaphod’s second head as collateral.)

Have you ever had the sensation of pure joy when something that looked hopeless works out so beautifully that you can only stand back and marvel? It’s a good feeling; I would recommend it.

Planning for the next Remember Sudan Trip has been a fascinatingly hard proposition, with moving schedules, changing ideas, and the uncertainties involved in traveling to Sudan, period. Everything has been up in the air over the past two weeks, and I wasn’t sure anything was going to work out…much less perfection.

Due to what can only be termed the grace of God, the trip is on, I am going, and it has been worked out so that I can go home for Thanksgiving, leaving for Sudan (out of Harrisburg) the day after. And to top it all off, I have a long layover in Amsterdam that just might allow me to bop around for a couple of hours there.

God is certainly good. I share this praise, though, in the hopes that it will prompt you to pray for Remember and the doors God is opening in Sudan. This trip, Lord willing, will kickstart our ability to minister to persecuted believers there. And please pray for those of us that will be traveling, as well!

So I’ll be leaving Charleston on November 21, spending Thanksgiving with my family, and leaving Harrisburg on the 23rd. We’ll arrive in Khartoum the 24th, spend 9 full days in country, and leave on December 4. Our time in country will be divided between the capital, Khartoum, and Kadugli, where we are looking to do our building. (I found this great map of Sudan, if you want to see where those are.)

Thanks for your prayers.

Parkinson’s Law is a well-known statement of one of life’s practical conundrums:

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

That law is self-explanatory, and needs no further proof beyond your local Burger King (especially if you live in North Charleston and “customer waiting for food” does not mean that you are out of time available for the completion of tasks). What I am interested in is a bit more deep–whether the inverse is also true.

You see, I crunched the numbers the other day, and by counting on both hands, both feet, and using a legal pad for the extra tick marks, I determined that I have five weeks left of law school. Looking ahead, the thought of trying to get everything that needs to get done packed into those five weeks seems very close to impossible.

So here’s the challenge: If work expands to fill the time alloted, does it shrink to meet deadlines?

I have a definite affinity for Costco’s organic chicken. It’s amazing stuff–grilled, baked, fried in a bit of butter, over pasta, under pasta, with a little pepperjack and olive oil on a roll…you get the picture.

A couple weeks ago I discovered, in the pasta variation, that if I slice the chicken into chunks before cooking it, it works better than cooking the whole piece. The seasoning spreads more easily, it cooks faster, and is just as tender while being far more user-friendly.

Last time I cooked it, I added a spot of balsamic vinaigrette just before it was done, which added a nice little pizzazz. Tonight I thought I’d do the same thing, but added it a bit early and accidentally added way too much. I must admit I was despondent at first; I love balsamic vinaigrette, but too much can really mess up the pasta.

Boy, was I wrong. The vinaigrette boiled down to a tasty sauce for the pasta, which was excellent on its own, but even better then that, as it cooked down, it formed a thick, slightly sweet coating on each piece.

The moral of the story is that as much as the steam from boiling vinegar sears the nose, enough boiling has the opposite effect on the tongue. I may repeat this mistake tomorrow.

The other day I did a more exhaustive sweep of my site analytics than normal, and came across some very random results.

Some things were not surprising. For instance, since I launched this site in March, almost a quarter of site visitors have come from Virginia. (Shout outs to all my VA friends…) What is surprising is the state that came in second as far as number of visits–Ohio.

Ohio? I must admit that one puzzles me. Any of you Ohio readers care to identify yourselves?

Other than that, I have had hits from all states except (east to west) Rhode Island, Vermont, Tennessee, Arkansas, Kansas, both Dakotas, Montana, and Idaho.

On the international front things have been less active, but I have gotten hits from (oh, let’s go west to east this time, starting from my location) Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Djibouti, Pakistan, Thailand, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and Canada.

Fun times. Aside from being rather useless knowledge, I enjoy it. (And I should note, lest anyone be worried, that I have no way of tracking any personal information. Your privacy is safe from Google Analytics.)