Category: Older Posts

My morning in (small claims) court

To cut to the chase, I don’t know the outcome since the commissioner feels the need to review plaintiff’s submitted documents.

Last summer I made the poor decision to do some hourly computer work for a person I thought was a friend. To say it turned into a nightmare that is hopefully now going to end is an understatement.
This person initially asked me to show how to use Twitter, Facebook, clean up some old stuff on an existing computer and see why backups were apparently not working. However just before I got to the office the additional request of selecting and setting up a new netbook was added.
Over several weeks I did 25 hours of work, though really we never got to the initial requests as getting a working netbook kept getting in the way. To put this politely, I reached the tolerance limit for working in an increasingly negative environment.
Some weeks later I started getting emails requesting additional help and then a refund of most of the small fee I’d charged. I refused but as the emails (and snarky remarks when we happened to be in the same place) kept coming in, despite my repeated requests to leave me be, I unfortunately got increasingly negative in response.
On a number of occasions this person threatened to sue me. Finally a month or so ago I was served and today was the specified appointment.
Small claims is interesting, and generally a good idea. You don’t tie up real courts and require expensive legal assistance to resolve small dollar value claims. There are even volunteer mediators who attempt to get parties to settle without going before the judge.
The process is also informal: the plaintiff makes a statement, the defendant makes a statement, if either side brings a witness those people make statements and each side can make a rebuttal. The judge can ask questions at any point he or she deems fit.
The person suing me brought a thick volume of printouts–amusingly this person was suing their homeowners association as well and gave the judge the wrong set of documents–while I brought none.
What really surprised me is how differently the plaintiff and I recall the events in question. Memory is so subjective! Of course I believe I told the truth and I won’t say the plaintiff feels different about their statements. The plaintiff brought a witness, a mutual friend, but I think his testimony helped me as much as it did the plaintiff.
I hope the decision goes in my favor since of course I feel I did nothing wrong. Also, I did some research on the State of California website and couldn’t find any legal basis for the plaintiff’s claim so there’s that too.

As 2009 passes to the rear

So 2009 is ending, and more with a petering out than excitement and cheer. I’m in a summing up mood, so here goes.

Sydney: This little puppy has definitely been a high point. He is very 2009, sporting his own albeit not too active Twitter account. Five months old now so probably close to his full growth at about a dozen totally cute pounds. He needs to learn to stop whimpering incessantly to try and get what he wants.
Kachingle: This startup has been another one for the plus column. I really enjoyed spending a few months writing heads-down Rails code and am now in the marketing team, as originally intended. If I got one holiday wish I would use it to get the angel funding round we’re actively seeking–if you know anyone looking to invest in a very new, web-oriented revenue system please speak up!
Family: Everyone is in reasonably good health or better. Mom and Dad are enjoying life in the Princeton area, though we didn’t get to see them this year due to work and scheduling issues. Joanne, Larry and Jake got a new custom-built house but had to postpone the trip here this coming week as my bro got a last minute work emergency he had to stay and clear. We finally saw most of TS1’s siblings the week before last–hope to meet our first grandnephew soon!
House: Put in a new fence back in February but didn’t start on the new landscaping. With luck this will get going in February or March. With help from the Big Guy I put in some floor-level venting in the garage, which got us a major reduction in the flood insurance. Obama gave us a hand too, with his mortgage program getting us a 75 basis point rate reduction.
JHTC and Volunteering: Not sure where I’ll score this. We had 12 really good monthly events but the board is having serious communication issues that brought me down a lot throughout the year. My planned rewrite of the website in Rails didn’t get finished. And 2010 membership renewals are just not happening, sadly. On a positive note I had a couple of meetings at the beautiful new Oshman Family JCC and will be helping as they rebuild their web presence.
Travel: Besides not going to Jersey in June we didn’t take a single plane ride or stay in any hotels. For 2010 we have to get to see my folks and are looking for a dog-friendly California resort to use our timeshare week, preferably in the Summer.
I hope you and your loved ones are happy and healthy and become only more so in the new year. L’chaim!

You cannot know me

[Haven’t posted a new poem in a while…]

You cannot know me
You cannot breach the wall
Of the Universe which
Separates me from you

A camel is more likely to
Sashay through a needle’s eye
No words shouted loudly or
Seared into another’s skin

Confusion sadly is part and parcel
Questions go unanswered
Philosophical investigations trail
Off unto nothingness and always will

You cannot know me
Men and women, tine after tine
Have spent their lengthy lives
Wasted in contemplation

What can you know?
What do you see and hear?
What are you able to do?
What do you feel deep within?

US Soccer, FIFA Rankings and the new US Invitational

From SpoFi today one of my compadres commented: “I’m not sure there’s a good way to produce rankings for a sport where teams might face each other in competitive games no more often than every four years, and usually much less than that, but I am sure that if there is a way FIFA haven’t found it yet.“
You have to start with the fact that most games–the competitive ones which count–are against the other countries in the same region. So other than Mexico and with less consistency Costa Rica and Honduras the US do not play too much quality opposition outside of the World Cup. We rack up points against the Cubas, Canadas and Jamaicas towards FIFA’s scoring system.
Some people claim that to significantly improve our national team MLS need to switch to a European calendar (with a Scandinavian-style winter break) but MLS has never agreed. Adding teams in Toronto, Seattle, Portland and Vancouver recently make such a change even less likely. MLS promotion/relegation is another popular idea that will go nowhere in our lifetimes.
Instead I think US Soccer should push CONCACAF to put the Gold Cup on a four year schedule like the Euro and then in the vacated year organize a new tournament: the US Invitational.
Invite seven big national teams to play in the USI at our best stadiums. Everyone gets a big payday–just look at the huge attendance at the club friendlies and Gold Cup matches last month–its TV friendly and, for us, gets the US quality regular intercontinental competition.
The tournament would need to avoid being seen as competing with the Confederations Cup, easily done by simply not inviting the other continental association champions. Similar to how the Europa League takes the teams who just missed the Champions League (sort of). Say Argentina, Chile, England, Russia, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Australia.
Does anyone have Sunil Gulati’s phone number? This could be up and running in 2013 or 2015 and, having had some organizational experience, I’d be glad to give a helping hand.

EPL starts tomorrow and the fantasy league is on!

As usual SportsFilter is having its own league, plus I put my team in Ives Galarcep’s SBI league and Michael Romero’s Liverpool fans league.

The players I’m launching with are
Goal: Mark Schwarzer/Fullham
Defense: Bret Hangeland/Fullham, Ryan Shawcross/Stoke City, Maynor Figueroa/Wigan
Midfield: Steven Gerrard (Captain)/Liverpool, Frank Lampard/Chelsea, Dirk Kuyt/Liverpool, Jon Obi Mikel/Chelsea
Forwards: Jozy Altidore/Hull, Fernando Torres/Liverpool, Bobby Zamora/Fullham
Subs: Tomas Sorenson/Stoke City, Phil Neville/Everton, Kamil Zayatte/Hull, Michael Turner/Hull
Note that the fantasy rules limit selections to three players per club, one must select two keepers, five defenders, five midfielders and three strikers, and at least three defenders must be played.
Last year I dropped a few slots to 10th in the SpoFi league, mostly due to not having Cristiano Ronaldo as my captain when most others did but as he’s on holiday in Spain this should be less of a problem.
I’m hopeful of recovering my ‘Champions League’ position of two seasons ago as Stevie, El Nino and Dirk bring goals and gold to Anfield!

Wells Fargo #fail

Do you know that Wells Fargo will take any reason to switch retail customers to online only statements?

  1. If there are two people on an account and one chooses online only statements and the other chooses online and paper (the only two options), Wells Fargo will force the account to be online only. Even though the other choose is more inclusive and customer-friendly.
  2. Customer are asked constantly, nearly every time one logs in to their online system, to switch to online only statements. I mean for years on and on. I guess its too much to think that answering a question once, or maybe twice, would be good enough.
Forget about trying to get a straight answer from the customer service reps. I don’t blame the individuals, they’re only following instructions handed down from on high, but since customers can only speak with the front line reps I guess we’re stuck.