I recently sold a Mac Mini I had won in a film competition. I posted it on the new facebook marketplace (which is way better than the old one) and on Craigslist for 500 dollars. Within minutes of posting, I received this message.

hmmmmmmmm. Why would someone offer to pay me 250 dollars more than what i requested, and request an urgent response, and give me a long back story about a graduation in Africa? The whole thing was fishy to me and became more so the more I looked at it. There was no way to respond to this message. This was a new member of facebook, and hardly anyone goes without a profile pictures now. And when I searched for this person, I couldn't actually find them.
 
I ended up selling it thru Craigslist to a local guy. I met up with him at a local Subway Sandwich and that was it. Trust is hard to come by, giving local options the edge. And it is amazing how many people out there just want to take your money.

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I signed up to get the daily local newspaper a month ago. The salesman was one of those nice high school kids with lots of reasons why I should sign up. How its a win win for all parties. Something about him getting money for college, a discount for me, etc. But the paper never came. I never tried really hard to get it to come. Just wrote down my address on his form. I got a couple of calls from the paper asking if I had received a paper yet. I told them no, they asked questions like if my apartment complex had a gate etc. (It doesn't) But the paper never came so I called to cancel. It was easy enough and in a couple of weeks I got my 8 dollars back. In the form of a check. From Lee Procurement in Davenport Iowa.
 
How does that work? My guess is that the paper outsourced billing to these guys. Makes sense. Now I am not a privacy watchdog but it was interesting that this random company in Iowa has my name, address etc. It is amazing how interconnected our world is.

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I love soccer.  I was so happy to hear that Seattle had finally gotten an MLS team.  Last night the Sounders pounded last years MLS Cup finalists, the New York Red Bulls 3-0.  Seattle really showed its love for soccer as the 32,000 seats sold out in days.  I am excited to see some matches after this semester ends and I head home. 

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I love Apple. I also love the environment. I lived in the Bay Area and now in Seattle, so I guess it makes sense. But my two loves were recently at odds with one another. When I bought my iPhone, they took the wall charger out because a couple of them were faulty. I filled out the form and a couple weeks latter this package came for me.
 
 3 and a half inches of foam on every side. For a little wall brick? Isn't this a little overkill? You could almost stick this thing in a manilla envelope and it would be fine. I am a fan of less packaging and less waste. So I saved the box to send something else. Something important that actually needs a ton of padding.

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We went out to my roommates car in the morning and found that about half a foot of snow had piled up overnight. In his car, as his sunroof was open. Luckily, it was very cold, so nothing melted and it was easy to remove the snow. I thought in the end, it was pretty funny.

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