GreenEye Wire

If I am able to type on i35 you’ll know why.

Homer: We’ll search out every place a sick twisted solitary misfit might run to.
Lisa: I’ll start with Radio Shack.
–Simpsons – Treehouse of Horror VII

Why oh why do I ever go to Radio Shak for anything other than cables? Every time I’ve gone there to get anything related to computer equipment, the stuff never works. And yet I go back because it is convenient. Feh.

My mother just learned about Skype and she is all excited about the idea of being able to see the person you are talking to. Sort of like the future-istic telephone you saw on Star Trek and the Jetsons. So, I ran by the Radio Shak to get her and Dad basic web cams. I didn’t want anything complex or fancy..just a camera with a mike. Easy right?

Neither one of the web camera software cd’s that came with either of the web cams would even register on the computer as having anything on them. Heck, the DVD drive didn’t even show up in My Computer. So, I went to the Radio Shak site to download the software. Downloaded the software, ran it, and

Nothing.

The only thing about this entire process that I am grateful for is that I was actually at Dad’s computer trying to do all this myself instead of trying to talk him through it on the phone. While my Dad is very intelligent and good at many things, double clicking on the computer mouse is still a relatively new concept for him. But like Mom says “I can’t raise Soybeans to save my soul.”

I think the thing that gets me is that I really want to believe in Radio Shak. I want to think that maybe, possibly, a little store could do better than the huge Fry’s computer type warehouses. So far, however, it hasn’t happened. Their computer stuff is always crap. Always Always.

Thing is, I’ve never had to set up a web cam because my little Macbook — the cheapest one that Apple sells no less — came with the web cam already installed. I love that Apple just does stuff like this and I don’t have to mess with drivers and hardware that may or may now work.

Let me start this post by saying that I’m in a real peachy mood and I am going to curse gratuitously.  You have been warned.

Here I am all excited to post about my friend Hans coming to visit me this last month and then I try to work with my images and I can’t find any of them.  Well, it turns out that if you use Shoebox as your photo organizer AND you try to  move photos outside of the program — that is you move them in the Mac OS, you will screw everything up and you can’t find anything.  Oh, the photos are there, but they are scattered all over hell and back.

OK..so I looked at the help files.  The help files in Shoebox say that if you do happen to move the photos using the operating system instead of through the program, you can fix things simply by “Importing the new file into Shoebox.”

Well, that short of works.  Except that the new “top” file is called “Imported”… and it fucks up the old file system you so neatly set up.

So instead of your files being by date  — Say February 23, 2009 — like this:

2009 > 02 > 23

You have

Imported > 2009 >02 >23

And your “2009 > 02 > 23″  file is full of broken images.  This doesn’t really help matters.  Add to the fact that Shoebox express won’t import more than 1,000 images is just the cherry on top of the shit sundae.

So I upgraded to Shoebox Pro and was told in my nice paypal screen that all I need to do is start up Shoebox and my program will auto register and download the new program.  That didn’t happen, so I tried to download the “Pro” program manually but was told to buy the program again.

All of this has given me a headache.  Thankfully, Hans was kind enough to leave me some German chocolates and beer which I will eat/ drink to sooth my nerves.  I’ll try to tackle this tomorrow.

I was so excited to get my bicycle all fixed up. What started out as a $10 repair turned into a $70 repair. New crankshafts, new chainring, new spindle because the chainring was too big for the old spindle, and new chain because the old chain was too small for the new chainring. Add golf balls, velcro and an airhorn and the whole thing turned out more expensive than I thought it would be. But it also includes enhancements to help me out later.

I installed the airhorn and gave one satisfying blast, then put more air into it to record the sound for the blog entry and … nothing.

I fiddled with the lines, put more air into it, and nothing. And Nashbar’s customer service isn’t taking calls until tomorrow.

So, the whole thing won’t be finished until tomorrow, or possibly later if I need to send the airhorn back. At least the bike is back in working order, and I do have the golf balls mounted, so I’ve got *something* other than just my voice.

Feh.

OK. I admit it. I wrote the title of this post JUST for search engines to possibly find. I swore I wouldn’t take them into consideration so much, but well, some things I can’t let die.

Why does CareerBuilder Suck?

I uploaded my resume to CareerBuilder.com yesterday and was pleased to find a load of emails in my box today. I was pissed when most of them started like this

Dear Heather,

I am a District Manager for XYZ Company looking for a successful, business-minded individual with a strong desire for personal growth, career fulfillment, and financial success. Based on my initial review of your resume, I believe you may be an excellent fit for our Career Opportunity in sales with XYZ Company.

Some business marketing fluff here …

Income Potential:
Currently, each of our team members owns his or her own business and is very successful. The top team member earns over $350,000 and the average income for the team of 30 agents is over $125,000. You control your own destiny with XYZ Company. Your earning potential is unlimited!

Qualifications:
We require highly motivated individuals willing to invest their time and energy into creating a profitable and rewarding business. You must have a desire to succeed, have an independent spirit and strong work ethic.

Bla bla bla. Here’s another one:

Business Opportunity
ARE YOU READY FOR A CHANGE? DO YOU OWN YOUR LIFE?

Have you ever thought about what it would be like to “Own Your Life?”
This is what we think it means to “Own Your Life:”
When you subtract out the sleeping time, commuting time, working time and things you have to do each and every day of your life, most people don’t have more than one to two hours a day to do what they would like to do; and then, would you have the money to do it?

*sigh*

I also received a phone call this morning that went something like this

Me: “This is Heather.”

Super Happy Voice: “Hi, we are with ABC Financial Company and we found your resume on Career builder and we were super interested in your qualifications. We were wondering if you’re be interested in an interview tomorrow.”

Me: “Um, OK.”

S.H.V.: “GREAT! We have one interview spot left at 9AM tomorrow.”

Me: “One ~spot~ left? Can you tell me if the position is for Internet Marketing Manager or is it just Search Engine Optimization, or what is it?”

S.H.V.: *Puzzled silence*

Me:”Hello?”

S.H.V.: “I’m not sure what you’re asking, but we’re looking for highly motivated individuals willing to invest their time and energy into creating a profitable and rewarding business.”

Me: *sigh* “So…did you even *read* my resume? Do you know what Search Engine Marketing is?

S.H.V. (who is not so happy now, and actually a little irritated.) “Well, we have one interview position left tomorrow morning at 9AM. Can you be here?”

Me: “No. I’ve got a prior appointment.”

S.H.V. “Fine.” *Phone goes dead.*

Basically, from what I can figure out, CareerBuilder sells everyone’s email and phone number in giant lists to ‘cattle call sales type’ ventures who then spam your box with crap and waste your cell phone minutes.

No thank you.

God only knows how much more spam I will receive from this.

*The following is old school spam just for search engines. It will do absolutely nothing to the ranking of Careerbuilder, and won’t even rank for ‘Careerbuilder sucks’ but it will at least make me feel like I’m doing something to go up against ‘the man’. And, old school stuff like this is just a laugh.*

Careerbuilder sucks
Careerbuilder sucks
Careerbuilder sucks
Careerbuilder sucks