Category: Home & Family

Family & Home related items.

2019

Published on by Andy Affleck

I think I am done with the whole, 201x was awful, let’s make 201x + 1 better, trope. It hasn’t been working. So I am going to shift my focus to making life better regardless of the date. There are only so many things within my control but I have to keep reminding myself that I have more control than I give myself credit for.

I’m still working on the job search. I have a few promising leads and am hoping that hiring will pick up in general now that it’s a new budget year for many places. Meanwhile, there’s always client work to keep the lights on and occasional stints hosting Geeks Who Drink (though I have nothing on the calendar until late February at this point).

The big thing this year is on May 15, Ann and I will celebrate our 20th anniversary. We’ve not been able to do anything major for either of our recent milestone birthdays so maybe we will be able to to for this anniversary? We haven’t been to Italy since our honeymoon 20 years ago… I’m just saying…

Anyway, like I said, I’m not going to say 2019 will be a good year or that I have x and y resolutions. Instead, I am going to say that there are improvements I want to make and changes that need changing in general and it’s time to get to work on all of it.

Something is Wrong with This…

Published on by Andy Affleck

In August, I ordered my son’s books for school. His school uses an online bookstore and he wanted digital versions where possible so he didn’t have to carry around a heavy bag. So, I ordered what I could digitally and the rest on paper. After about the first week of school was over, he came to me and said that his history teacher said that he really needed the current textbook (he had been using a loaner of last year’s version). I told him that I’d ordered it and thought the teacher would have the online license code to grant him access because I had gotten an email to that effect. Turns out, that was for his science book.

So, I checked the online bookstore (Follett) and found the order was incomplete and that one item was backordered and would ship when available. You guessed it, the license code for his history book from Pearson. I wrote to Follett and said that I’d never heard of license codes being back ordered. It takes a second to generate a new code and email it to someone. They gave me a polite brush-off reply that, indeed, codes can be backordered and they would ship when available.

Last week I got an email that his license codes had shipped. Via FedEx. And would arrive late the following week. Again, I boggled that license codes had to be shipped.

2014-09-18 10.38.25

Then they arrived yesterday. They came in a ridiculously large, flat package. Inside where two sets of codes (for two years of access). I felt like redirecting the package to the school just to complete the absurdity of the whole thing but texted him the code for the first year instead.

In 2014 unlock codes for digital books have to be mailed in a package via conventional shipping. The mind boggles.