I learned a little while ago that Pam was shot and killed by her boyfriend a few months back. She was a fantastic woman; I wish I’d found out sooner or kept in touch but at least I had the pleasure of meeting her.

RockdaleCitizen.com

Thing is, the magazine I requested is called “Games for Windows” and this shows “Computer Gaming World”, which was the name of the mag 2 years ago. Plus the offer when I requested the subscription was for 12 issues for $12, a hell of a lot better than 36 issues for $84. And who the hell is “Billing Subscription Co.”? Games for Windows Magazine is published by Ziff-Davis. Oh yeah, and there’s that fine print – “OFFER NOT A BILL”.

So I flipped it over and on the back you see this:

Here, buried in a nice big blurb of text they mention “The offer that you received is just an offer not a bill”. They’ll gladly cancel your order “if your order has not yet been processed”, in which case they’ll charge a $9 fee plus “costs to submit your order”. Why do I suspect that a lot of people (like my parents) could get screwed by this sort of thing?

I sent a complaint to the BBB and sent billingsubscriptionco@yahoo.com a note. I don’t know how they figured out that I requested the subscription but it has to be more than coincidence.

Please, please, don’t fall for this stuff.

Damn scammers.

Sammie seemed to get right into the swing of things, and after a few minutes she seemed to remember everybody no matter where we went. The best part is that she gets along great with my mom (Grandma Ursula), giving Huong and I some space. She had a lot of fun walking going on walks with her and their dog.

Weather-wise, Cincinnati in February is a cold place. It was a lot of freezing rain and occasional snow mixed in for good measure. Sammie didn’t seem to mind in the least that she was playing more with ice than snow. The drive down from Columbus the night we arrived was pretty exciting – it’s been a while since I’ve driven in snow, and the freeways hadn’t been plowed or salted yet. A nice reminder why I moved to California.

A nice trip overall, the only thing missing was cheese coneys. My mom was on another cooking kick, so there was always a home-cooked meal waiting. I guess I can live with that.

I was there to attend a management training course for work and the other two were tagging along for a mini vacation. The course was called the “Foundations of Leadership” and despite the fluffy-sounding title was extremely interesting, and could be aptly called “Understand your own personality and how you relate to others.” Over the course of two and a half days we were run through both a Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator test (I’m and ENTP) as well as a FIBRO-B personality test, followed by a Conflict Dynamics Profile. This was all topped off by several role playing sessions on conflict resolution, persuasion skills, and delivering feedback. Fun, eh?

It was actually really fascinating. I never put much weight into these sorts of things before, but after seeing my results and reading into the interpretation of the data I was shocked at how accurate a lot of it was. For example, now I have an understanding about why I get so irritated when I find out about something at work through the grapevine — it’s in conflict with my high desire for inclusion . Similarly, I wouldn’t necessarily strike up a conversation with somebody in an elevator but I’d be happy to chat with them if they initiated — that’s a mid-range expressed affection coupled with a high level of wanted affection.Of course these don’t present excuses for behaviors, but they do provide a really interesting perspective with which to view personal habits.

Probably the most useful thing is that I now have a slightly different lens through which to look at myself and try to interpret my own behavior. And hopefully that will mean that I can take advantage of my natural tendency to be [spontaneous/disorganized/easily bored and distracted/conversational/wishy-washy/etc.] instead of fighting it, and be a little more sensitive to other people’s quirks.Far and away the most valuable thing I got out of the experience was that I should spend more time reflecting on what I want to do and how I want to live, and make sure that my career and my personal life both head in that direction. It’s common sense now that I think about it, but we ENTPs apparently don’t spend a whole lot of time reflecting .

So while I was having all that fun, Huong and Sammie hit the town: the San Diego Zoo on Wednesday, which included Huong getting a migraine and Sammie throwing a huge tantrum (and Huong telling an old lady to “go back to the old folks home” after she made a snide remark about Sammie’s screaming), an 8+ hour day at the Wild Animal Park on Thursday, and some kids activities on Friday. I joined them that afternoon, and we were supposed to go to Legoland but there was a torrential downpour all day so we stayed indoors and went to a kid’s playland.

Friday evening we spent out at dinner with my family, my aunt Esper and uncle Emilio plus my 2nd cousin Sonji. We had to trick Sammie into thinking we were going to see Huong’s sister, but once we got to the restaurant she warmed up pretty quickly and in a few minutes she was drawing pictures with my uncle like she’d known him forever. It was great to see them since it’s been several years since I last went down south to visit. They’re a lot fun, so I regret not spending more time down here.

Overall, I thought it was a pretty good trip. Huong…not so much since she had Sammie all to herself. Would have been better if I’d actually been on vacation, but we’ll take what we can get.

It was pretty terrifying, the largest earthquake I’ve personally witnessed. The ironic part was that we’d gone to the museum just the other day to see Body Worlds, and they have an earthquake simulator. We got on it and simulated the recent India earthquake (7 point something on the Richter scale) and it was all fun — ha, ha, that was scary, chuckle. It’s a little different when it catches you by surprise. However a 5.6 isn’t so bad – we had some things fall off the shelves, and we had a small piece of plaster fall from one of corners, but nothing serious. If we weren’t on an upper story, probably nothing would have happened.

So this was really more of a wake up call than anything else, and it prompted me to double check what the Red Cross has to say about disaster preparedness. And it set me to thinking about what’s important. I really didn’t give a second thought to our pets. Sorry to say that if the big one hits, they’re on their own. We’ve joked that one of us would take a cat under each arm and the other would get Sammie and the dog, but if last night was an indication, that’ll be an afterthought. And the same goes for our belongings; just family and our emergency backpacks. I can live with those priorities.

Sammie: What’s that, mommy?

Huong: It’s a deer.

Sammie: It’s a dog. (giggling)

Huong: (I’m about to correct her but her giggles make me stop to think for a sec) It’s a…cow!

Sammie: (giggling even more) No. It’s a deer, silly!

I was laughing my ass off.

As more children arrived, I was quietly observing Sammie, waiting for a “my ____!” moment. To my surprise, it wasn’t until the end that it happened. But it was a mild one and because there are so many of the same toys, the situation was quickly diffused. Our first day was a success! My only complaint was my chore duty. I was relieved when I learned my duty was to sweep the floors. Score! No cleaning up art supplies or toys. I got the easy one. Wrong. I was the last one to finish! The only broom they had was one of those old stiff witch brooms that don’t sweep up crap! Well, since I am now officially on the Board as Purchasing Chair, I will make it my personal goal to get a Swiffer for God’s sake. I mean, who uses those brooms anymore anyway?

Afterwards we went to see Balls of Fury at the local movieplex. If you enjoyed the Naked Gun movies you’ll probably enjoy this — think Fists of Fury with the kungfu swapped for ping pong, but with physical comedy and dumb dialog laid on top. Needless to say I loved it and Huong hated it.