DOOD.CA: Guy Stuff

Just watched Cloverfield, and this girl is Gorgeous. A former model, Odette had several minor roles on TV shows until she landed a lead role in the TV Movie “Reckless Behavior: Caught on Tape”. She followed that up with a supporting role in the action blockbuster Cloverfield.

Odette is a beautiful brunette with the body of a model, with her tanned skin coming from her half-Cuban heritage. Hopefully we’ll get to see a bit more of her in the future!

Well guys and girls I’m sitting in my local coffee shop today and thinking about the future. More specifically the future of the coffee shop I’m sitting in right now. There has recently been talk of a Starbucks going in across the mall and it leaves me wondering what will become of my little home away from home. Some of you are probably wondering why I would care that much, isn’t one coffee shop as good as any? Well anyone who lives for the little moments when the espresso hits the steamed milk, the rich taste of a good dark roast or the just the warm welcome home feel you get when you walk in that door and the cute girl at the cash asks ” The regular?”. To some people where they get their coffee fix is a place to relax and enjoy a warm drink with friends . While others just go to get a quick pick me up. I was once one of the people who didn’t know the true coffee experience. Now I sit here and enjoy not just the coffee but the happy chatter from the other patrons, and the clatter from the barista as she steams milk and pours the espresso, preparing another caffeine concoction.

So what does Starbucks mean to my little home away from home? Well I hope that others will remain loyal to this little place and allow it to stay open. I think the draw of the bigger name coffee shop will attract a lot of attention, at first anyway. They will have more flavoures and quicker service but will they have the same feel. Will the barista know your name? Will they be able to tell you that your favorite medium roast is being served today? I don’t have the answer to these questions but I have to keep optimistic. I do know that the little coffee shops are a haven for those of us that truly enjoy sitting for an afternoon with friends or reading a good book with a delicious macchiato. An excellent place to enjoy a cool italian soda out in the sun while watching the traffic go by. Or the perfet place to take someone on a first date, flirting over a steaming cup of coffee.

There are people who will cry out that Starbucks is not as bad as I make it out and that they go there all the time and find it to be the best coffee shop around. Lets not get confused. I like Starbucks, I even go there sometimes. All I’m saying is don’t let the more comercially acceptable coffee shops be the only ones you go to. Go try one of your local shops, you might just find a new place to call home.

This is an amazing CD player.

I have heard a lot of CD Players in my time on my system, but this is the first one to literally open it up to an entirely new level of performance. Granted this is probably the most expensive CD Player I have ever had in my system, next to perhaps a Krell that belongs to a friend of mine. His Krell sounded fantastic, but I didn’t listen to it long enough to realize the amount of impact it really had, while the Bel Canto CD-1 really did blow me away right from the get-go.

Its a front-loading player, with a retail price of $5000. It uses a Phillips Transport, with a Custom Low-Jitter clock. Several separate multi-stage power supplies, and the DAC is performed by a PCM1792 chip from Burr Brown. Not a lot of info was to be found, and I don’t feel like cracking open the case to see. Outputs and inputs are both Balanced and Unbalanced… I’ve been using the Balanced and I enjoy the performance of it. This is an extremely transparent player and presents and extremeley holographic soundstage.

The CD-1 has been replaced by the new CD-2, which is a smaller half-size unit that uses the Phillips top-loading transport, and is something of a digital turntable in it’s design. As for the sonic improvement (if any), I have not heard it yet so I cannot comment.

I’ve had lots of problems with these guys in the past, with importing things that are legal, but because of some sort of circumstance, the definition can be twisted into making it seem illegal. Such as pocket knives where the pivots are so loose that the knife blade can swing out easily. Nearly every single pocket knife with a screw pivot can be made to do this… by simply loosening up the screw. Just like any Automatic switchblade knife can have the pivot tightened to the point where it does not spring open. Does that make the switchblade legal? No. But then why does loosening the pivot make the regular knife illegal?

The problem here is that the CBSA represents the only thing standing in your way coming over the border, and they report to no one. When you appeal a decision by the CBSA, they simply review it with other officers from.. you guessed it.. the CBSA. You can appeal and take them to court, which is costly and time consuming.. not something you’d normally do over a $100 knife… which means they win.

I’ve been stopped once and scrutinized by CBSA at the border.. they went through all my stuff… asked me questions about where I worked and interogated me about my previous jobs and what I did on ebay… when I was returning from a trip with friends in Vegas. For 45 minutes I was treated like I had done something wrong. I’ll have to give them tons of credit for being very polite and cordial the whole time, but it was embarassing, and makes me feel less safe about travelling. Rather than making me feel safe that they are not making sure criminials are coming through, I felt violated and treated like I might have done something wrong, when I have not. The whole conspiracy thing comes to mind. I don’t want to be put in jail for a week for no reason simply because they can. It has happened before.

So anyway, back to the topic of importing stuff. This guy imports a TRANSFORMERS MEGATRON TOY.. yes, a plastic, transforming toy.. and since it transforms into a gun, the CBSA decides to confiscate it.. What the hell? I had one of those when I was 10… before my neighbor stole it.

Anyway… this is the world we live in. Lets worry about the toy and not the real criminals… if they weren’t letting any drugs or illegal arms in at all and doing a good job with that, it would be a different matter, but they are.. because the reality is there are illegal arms and drugs in Canada. So why devote so much effort to protect us from these plastic toys when there are real threats out there?

If you guys ever watched the TV Show “The Border”, you’d find it really funny picturing all those guys sitting around a boardroom table examining this toy.. calling the prime minister and the US embassy to get their opinion on it.

What a joke.

Quite possibly the worst affiliate program I have ever used. The customer service staff have been consistently useless and ambiguous in their response to my problem: I have not been paid when I should have been for the last four months. And now, the last couple times I have contacted their feedback department, I have been ignored… so they are basically keeping my payments for themselves.

I had a lot of respect for Amazon in the past, but I don’t anymore. Sad thing is, I am still running their ads simply because I am trying to give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe someone there will be nice enough to actually reply to me at some point. What a load of garbage.

These are the replies I have gotten from them:

January 8th, 2008
I’m very sorry for the delay in sending your payment. I’m still
working with our Accounts Payable team to determine what we need to do
to get your payment out as soon as possible.

We appreciate your patience, and I will be getting back to you with
more information soon.

January 4th, 2008
I sincerely apologize for the delay and we appreciate your patience.
My colleague Jacci is working on this issue and I’ll make sure she
follows up with you within the next few business days.

Thank you for choosing the Associates Program.

December 28th, 2008
Please know that we strive to respond to all inquiries as quickly as
possible; however, in order to address your inquiry appropriately it
will require some further research. We will contact you again via
e-mail within the next week.

Thank you for choosing the Amazon.com Associates Program.

December 1st, 2008
I checked your account and found that you changed your payment method
after August ended. Your payment method was changed from check to gift
certificate on September 21, 2007.

Payment processing begins immediately following the end of each month.
Account changes will only take effect for the month in which the
change was made… [snip]

[end of emails]

So they have been ignoring me since January 8th, which is getting on 2 months ago. I was over the threshold to receive a payment on the first of November, but because I changed my payment method they had to delay it 4 Months!?!?!?

Amazon Associates, take a hint from Google Adsense and get your payouts STRAIGHT. Adsense isn’t perfect, but they respond promptly, and address concerns immediately. Unlike You guys who stall for months and months and months with no results, whatsoever.