A Day, A Week, Hemant, A Year

Yeah, that’s right. I’m soon to be homeless. As in, without a home. On the streets. In a van, down by the river. I was informed a couple days ago that my landlord is moving out of the city (I’m not sure where), so he is selling his rental properties in Saskatoon. The property has been listed as of today, and apparently there is already a couple of people going through to look at it tonight. It’s not going to take long to sell.

So what does this mean to me? Well I have a minimum of thirty days from the selling date to vacate, so at least that gives me a little time to figure something out. I guess not all is bad since this will be the kick in the ass I needed to buy something. I did in fact officially enter the buyers market yesterday after going to view a house in the city. I have my realtor uncle on alert to find me a good deal in this ridiculous market. It’s just going to be really annoying while realtors show my current place. I’m allowed at least 24 hours notice prior to a viewing, but that doesn’t really help much when the viewing is in the evening. I would have appreciated a little more notice that it was going up for sale. At least then I could have gotten out before it actually hit the market. Well I guess if I’m laying on the couch in my underwear everytime they show up they’ll try and schedule during office hours.

About two weeks ago I was talking to Curtis about the XBox 360 and the three year warranty extension that Microsoft had granted all customers. I mentioned to him how he, Travis, and I had been lucky up to this point since so many other people have had their 360s pile up on them. I felt the urge to knock on wood, but I’m not a superstitious guy so I said, “screw that.”

The very next night I was trying to watch a movie with my 360, but it kept freezing. Blaming Rogers Video for their frequently scratched DVDs, I cursed to myself as I tried to clean the disc. But to my surprise, the movie continued to freeze. I decided to recycle the power on my 360 when I was greeted with the notorious “Red Ring of Death”. You can see my poor 360 below.

After calmly stating out loud, “My 360 just died”, I quickly turned it off in hopes that it was just an anomaly. I let out a sigh of relief when the the “Red Ring of Death” didn’t return, but my hopes were dashed when the 360 splash screen froze. I turned it off, not to try and turn it on again until tonight. Sure enough, the “Red Ring of Death” returned, and it was time to call Microsoft.

After walking through a couple of paltry troubleshooting techniques with the support rep, he finally agreed that I had experienced a hardware failure, and we set up the warranty claim. I’m happy that the repair process is fairly straight forward, and free to me, but I’m just hoping that I don’t have Jeffrey’s experience from hell. If this had happened at any other time, it wouldn’t really have been a big deal (I haven’t actually played a 360 game all summer). But with the release of Halo 3 tonight, I’m definitely SOL. The timing couldn’t have been worse.

It had been about two weeks since my last post and I was desperately trying to come up with a topic. Well, I’m happy to say that while a few of us were over at Kipp’s last night, a topic worth posting about was born. I decided to leave around 1 am, and made my way to my car, surprised to notice that there was broken glass all around the rear tire.

“Strange”, I thought, since I didn’t remember parking in a big pile of glass. Then I moved my head up a bit and saw that my rear left door window was broken. “Strange”, I thought since I didn’t remember my window being broken when I left the car.

Jason and Cheryl were leaving at the same time, and when it finally hit me, all I could say was, “My car got broken into”. After repeating this a couple times since neither of them would believe me, I took a look inside to see if anything was missing. I’m pretty anal about leaving nothing in plain view for that exact reason, and this time was no different. There was nothing taken – just the broken window.

I decided to walk down the road to see if there were any other cars that suffered the fate I had. Sure enough Todd’s rear left vent window fell victim as well. The glass was still intact, but completely spidered with a small hole visible. It looks like the culprits used a pellet gun as the weapon of choice for their crime spree.

This morning I called Speedy Glass to get an estimate and make an appointment. It was actually not as expensive as I was thinking it was going to be, but I can definitely think of of better things to do with $250. On the bright side, I finally had something worth posting about.

Since I’ve returned from Ontario, I’ve had my cable and internet service provided by Shaw Cable. This decision was made more for convenience than choice. I would have preferred Bell ExpressVu, but that would have required a dish, and my condo association did not have rules in place in regards to allowing dishes. So my choices were Shaw Cable and SaskTel Max. Since I have a High Definition (HD) TV and SaskTel Max didn’t offer HD programming – I really had only one option. I consider having a HD TV without subscribing to HD channels to be the same as having a computer and not having internet access. It doesn’t make sense.

Now the quality of Shaw High Speed Internet has been great. I have not complaints. But when it’s time to discuss their cable service – well that’s a completely different story. Firstly, they offered nine HD channels when I signed up just over a year ago (as opposed to 27 with Bell). I could deal with it because at least it included the sports channels and Canadian and American networks. I was pleasantly surprised (this is sarcasm) when I realized the US networks were coming from Seattle, meaning that any prime-time programming wouldn’t start until 10:00 at night.

Well I guess the upside was that the HD channels were free. Shaw assured me of this.

Fast-forward 12 months. Shaw decided to start charging for certain HD channels. Last night I tried to tune into TSN HD to watch my beloved Toronto Raptors take it to some sorry opponent (they’re first in the East by-the-way). Once again I was pleasantly surprised (this is more sarcasm) to see the ‘Subscription Required’ message pop up on my screen.

Immediately I called Shaw to ask, “What gives?” I finally got to talk to a customer care representative who begins to immediately barrage me with questions. The interrogation was as follows:

Me: Hi there. I would like to order the High Definition sports channels.
Shaw Rep: What’s your name?
Me: Hemant Naidu
Shaw Rep: What is your phone number?
Me: 306-XXX-XXXX
Shaw Rep: When were you born?
Me : April 13 of 1975
Shaw Rep: What is your driver license number?
Me: Licence number? Geeze. Ok, let me grab my wallet. Ok. It’s XXXX XXXX XX.
Shaw Rep: That’s not the number we have on file?
Me: When have I ever given you my driver license number?
Shaw Rep: When you initially hooked up with us.
Me. Hmmm. Oh, OK. I know what’s going on. When I signed up with you I had an Ontario license.
Shaw Rep: Yes, that’s right.
Me: When I got a Saskatchewan one a few months later, I had to return my Ontario one.
Shaw Rep. Ok, you’ll have to bring in your new driver license to the office on Monday.
Me (thinking): But the Raptor game starts in 15 minutes, not on Monday).
Me: I’ve made these types of changes since I’ve had my new license, and I’ve never been asked to verify it.
Shaw Rep: Yes, we’re trying to crack down on fraud.
Me (thinking): You’re a fraud.
Me: So you’re not going to let me add a $3 channel.
Shaw Rep: Not until you bring us your new license.
Me: Do you guys charge a service disconnection fee?
Shaw Rep: No.
Me: Ok, ’cause I’ll likely be calling back and doing that.
Me (thinking): Idiot.
Shaw Rep: OK. Bye.
Me (thinking); WTF?

I stood there in a dazed state. Curtis was sitting on the couch with a matching look on his face from listening to my conversation. After I regained my composure I said, “Why didn’t I ask to speak to her supervisor?”

Now for those who don’t know, SaskTel has added High Definition channels to their Max service. And they don’t offer a measly 10 channels – they offer 29. If you ask why I haven’t switched to them yet, it’s just because I haven’t seen a demo of it. There are some possible quality issues with it.

Anyway, getting back to where I left off. Since I was so mad I decided to call Shaw back, make my request again, and if I got the same result I was going to disconnect the service and switch to Max. I called back and got a different rep.

Me: Hi. I’d like to order the sports HD channels.
Shaw Rep: OK. Those are in the HD Premium package for $9.99 a month.
Me: No, I think I can just get the sports ones for $2.99 a month.
Shaw Rep: Oh, you just want those two?
Me: Yes.
Shaw Rep: OK, let me just turn that on for you.
Me: OK.
Shaw Rep: Alright, I’ve enabled those channels. Can you just try channels 301 and 308 to make sure they’re working?
Me: Yup, looks like they’re good.
Shaw Rep: Right on. Thanks for calling Shaw.
Me: Thanks. Bye.
Me (thinking): WTF?

I know. You’re probably as confused as I was. Needless to say, Shaw managed to buy themselves a little more time with me as a client, and I got to watch the Raptors beat the Boston Celtics in all of its High Definition glory. I’m not an expert on the training process over at Shaw Cable but you’d think they’d be running off of the same script. Either way I don’t really care and I think this was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Today I’m going to hit the SaskTel store downtown where I can hopefully get a demo of their Max service and start my transition off of Shaw – taking my $135 per month with me. Honestly, I don’t think they’ll care – or at least their service reps won’t.

A few months ago I blogged about my early experiences with Zip.ca, an online movie rental company. I talked about the great money savings and convenience the service offered, but did outline a few problems that I hoped to evaluate as I continued my membership. Being a member for about three months, I felt that this was a sufficient period to honestly evaluate the service.

In short, I give Zip.ca an ‘F’ (where ‘F’ stand for ‘fail’, not ‘fantastic’ or ‘fabulous’). My main issue after three months was the same issue I exposed after only a couple of weeks – the movies I would get in the mail were old. So old in fact, that they were usually showing on the movie channels I subscribe to through my cable service. For instance, one of the last movies I received before canceling my membership was Walk the Line, which had been showing on Movie Central for about a month.

So I essentially felt as though I was being double-charged. I was paying $24.95 a month to receive movies I was already paying for through my cable subscription. Since I’m a logical kind of guy, this just didn’t seem like a good deal to me anymore.

In my opinion, I believe that Zip.ca is a victim of its own design. The convenience and money-saving positives that the service offers gives rise to the stale products they provide. Since members can keep their selections for as long as they want, those waiting for those titles suffer. I think you can see similar trends with Blockbuster’s ‘No Late Fees’ drive. Sure, this was great if you didn’t get a chance to watch your rentals in the rental time constraints and needed an extra day or two. But people took advantage of this offer and more-or-less killed it. People ended up keeping movies for weeks on end – probably not because they needed a couple extra days to watch them – but just because they were lazy and didn’t want to bother returning them. So Blockbuster’s ‘No Late Fees’ pretty much made it impossible for you to rent ‘new releases’ because they were all gathering dust in members’ houses. Due to this, Blockbuster has slowly phased their ‘No Late Fees’ out.

Another Zip feature that I feel contributes to the problem is their ZipList. Since Zip ‘suggests’ that you keep a ‘ZipList’ of at least twenty titles, you usually end up having to select movies that you really don’t want to see. And as it turned out, these were the movies I would usually end up receiving.

I haven’t really spoke to any other Zip.ca members to see if they have had similar experiences, so I really can’t make a blanket statement that Zip.ca sucks. Maybe others are receiving new releases in a timely fashion (I mean, someone out there has to be getting the new movies), or are willing to put up with not getting the most recent movies, and are fine with the trade-off for getting great savings. I personally cannot. I was seeing the commercials for so many great movies being released on DVD, but I was not getting a chance to see them. Now that I’ve put Zip.ca behind me, I feel free again, having the opportunity to see films as soon as they are released on DVD.

I have now been back in Saskatchewan for about two months. I can finally say that I have pretty much settled in. I have recently moved into my new townhouse in Saskatoon, and have finally started to feel like I’m being productive at work. Granted, I still have a few things to take care of, but I’m pretty much there. All-in-all, the move has been good. I do find myself missing Guelph and the old job, but that will pass with time.

Now despite being settled back in, there are a few things that I have found slightly irksome with my new ‘home’.

1) Shaw Cable – I knew that cable TV was going to be an issue once I got back to Saskatoon. The townhome I have moved into has no condo association, therefore no decisions have been made as to whether or not satellite dishes are allowed. Because of this, I would have to go with Shaw Cable as my service provider. This may not sound like such a big deal, but after you just spent big bucks on a new high definition TV, you want to get the most out of it. In Guelph I was with Rogers Cable and they offered about 25 HD channels. In Saskatoon Shaw offers 9 channels. I was willing to bite the bullet since the HD channels offered here did include the four major U.S. networks. Everything’s cool, right? Wrong. The four U.S. networks Shaw offers are from the west coast, meaning that prime time shows don’t start until 10:00 pm nightly. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I have to work and can’t stay up until all hours of the night watching TV. Why would they do something so idiotic? My theory is that Shaw did this on purpose so that their customers would have to buy an HD Personal Video Recorder (PVR) for $750.

2) Road Cleaning – Everyone knows that winter driving can be treacherous. Wet snow, freezing rain, packed snow, black ice – any one of these can make driving near impossible. If it wasn’t for city crews cleaning off the roads and keeping them safe, I don’t know how we would make it through winter. Well, I guess I’m gonna find out this winter what it will be like without them cleaning. Snow has now covered Saskatoon for over a week, and I have yet to see a road cleaned. 8th Street, a major road in the city is still covered with packed, icy snow, making it a mission to go two blocks down the street. Not even gravel has been distributed to make the roads a little bit more manageable. Has it always been like this here? I certainly don’t remember it this way, but I guess I got used to proper road crews in Guelph where roads were cleared within a few hours after a snowfall.

3) Grocery Stores – Out of the three grocery stores I have now been to in Saskatoon over the last week, I can safely say that they pretty much suck. Prices are high, and selection is weak. The most noticeable is the fruit and vegetable section. You’ll have no problem getting your typical, ‘mainstream’ stuff like potatoes and lettuce, but good luck finding anything like a hot pepper. I know Superstore will prove to be the answer, but who the heck wants to pack your own groceries, let alone buy the shopping bags?

4) This one isn’t really a problem with Saskatoon, but it just happened to occur in Saskatoon. Picture this – I’m driving down 22nd Street in Saskatoon one crisp Monday morning. Traffic is moving slowly since it is rush hour. The truck in front of me makes a hard stop, therefore I do too. I look in my rear-view mirror and see a ‘boat’ heading straight for me. I try to pull ahead a little more, but it’s too late – the ‘boat’ barrels into my car. After letting out a very loud expletive, I calmly wait for traffic to move by me so I can move over two lanes and pull off to a side road to exchange insurance information with the other party. Once on the side road, I notice the ‘boat’ doesn’t seem to be stopping. I lay on the horn. The ‘boat’ stops. We look each other in the eye, then she takes off. WTF? Are you kidding me? Who does something like that? I can understand someone taking off if they hit a parked car, but jeezus, you just rear-ended me on one of the busiest streets in Saskatoon. I was taken with such surprise that I didn’t even think to look at the plates. All I did see was that it was actually not a boat, but a late 70s gold Chrysler.

I guess it will just take me a little time to adjust to these things. I know they are minor, but when you get used to certain things, it is tough to let them go. I know I can deal with it since I was born and raised in this province. But the main reason I know I can deal with it all is because this is my home.

I used to download music. Most of this occurred during university when funds were limited, and acquiring music illegally was really the only way to stay current. My downloads weren’t excessive like other people I knew, but it was enough that I didn’t need a music budget. Once I finished my run as a student and started my career, music downloading eventually ended for me. I could now afford to buy music and was happy to pay the artists for their work. I was happy, the artists were happy, and the record companies were happy – everything was perfect.

So there I was, happily buying and listening to my compact discs. Then, as it constantly does, technology got smaller, faster and cheaper. Huge capacity hard drives were becoming dirt cheap and portable music devices could now hold entire music collections. The music digital revolution was underway and I found myself in the middle of it.

People were now transferring their music CDs to their computers which would act as their hub for listening to tunes. CDs were becoming irrelevant. Over the last year I started ‘ripping’ all of my music CDs to my computer. It was a relief to finish my collection that is in excess of four hundred discs. Now after I purchase a new CD, the first thing I do is pop it into my computer and transfer its contents. Once done, the disc usually ends up in a box in my basement. Now the new songs are available on my home stereo through my wireless network, or are ready to hit the road on my Dell DJ.

Then it happened. I bought the new Delirium disc, ‘Chimera’, threw it into my computer – and nothing. The music played fine, but transferring the songs to my computer was a no-go. After a bit of kicking and cursing I took a look at the CD case and noticed a special logo – ‘copy protected’. WTF?

At that moment I vowed to check for this logo before buying a CD. Sounds like a good plan, but I can tell you that I have forgotten to do this almost everytime. I went a while before falling into this trap again. This time it was ‘Honeycomb’ by Frank Black (frontman for the Pixies). This time it really pissed me off since I had recently purchased my Dell DJ and did the majority of my music listening through this device. I owned this disc for about two weeks before I actually listened to it. I’m sure I could have found a hack to get the music onto my computer, but I shouldn’t have to. I bought this disc legally, and was unable to listen to it the way I wanted to.

So what did I do? I downloaded the CD illegally of the internet (actually I don’t know if it is considered illegal if I own the disc). I just wonder what will happen the next time I go to buy a CD, and do notice the ‘copy protected’ logo? Am I going to buy it? Or am I just going to say, screw it, and download it? Even though I may not have agreed with the ways record labels were handling the music revolution, I was willing to follow the rules until they figured everything out. But if their solution to piracy is punish the customers who are willing to pay for the music, I don’t think I want to be part of that solution.

For further reading, check out this article Copy-protection Turning Fans Off.

Since I don’t take possession of my new pad in Saskatoon until December, I will be staying with my parents in Wilkie, Saskatchewan for the time being. Even though I grew up in this small town of 1400 people, you tend to forget the way some things are here. Living in Saskatoon for eight years, and then Guelph for six, I got used to lots of things that come with living in a city. Here’s just a few examples of what I am talking about.

Despite having the best Chinese food in the western world, the service is a little questionable at a local restaurant. About a week ago my dad and I decided to order some stellar Ginger Beef from the aforementioned eatery, so I called in to place my order. After the phone rang about ten times, someone finally picked up. Expecting to get a standard greeting such as, “Thanks for calling, how can I help you?”, I instead got a, “What you want?” Taken by surprise, it took me a couple seconds to respond. I placed my order and the person on the other side hung up without saying anything. It was a little strange, but when I went to pick up the order, everything was right – and the ginger beef was in fact, stellar.

Yesterday I was feeling a little bored so I decided to go watch some high school 6 man football playoffs – yes 6 man football. Despite freezing my butt off for the entire game, I managed to stick around and watch my alma mater lose. I did manage to fire off a few good photos during the game, so it wasn’t a complete write-off. Following the game I headed to one of the grocery stores to pick up a few things (during my high school years I actually worked at this grocery store as a bag / delivery boy).

Since I was going to be buying a few things I grabbed a shopping cart. You know those little shopping carts they have for kids at the ‘big’ grocery stores to keep them occupied? Well, I kid you not, that is what these carts were like. Anyway, the first order of business was to grab a few things from the meat department. I’m usually accustomed to having a pretty good choice of stuff to choose from. Well, that wasn’t quite the case at my old place of employment. I needed a couple chicken breasts and a beef roast. Lucky I got there when I did because there was exactly one ‘bulk pack’ of ten breasts and one big-ass beef roast. I then headed over to the bakery section to grab some bulk whole wheat buns, but there were none left so I had to settle for hamburger buns. I guess I did manage to get everything I needed, but I’m not sure that I could shop here all the time. But what I was happy about was the Old Dutch Chips that are not available east of Manitoba. I did miss those.

I guess what I am trying to say is that I am looking forward to getting back to Saskatoon so I can do some real grocery shopping (but I will miss the Ginger Beef, and the comical service). This may seem sad, but I love shopping for groceries. It is not odd for me to head to the market when I’m bored – seriously.