Checking In

A catch-all, catch-up post

There are 1,133 posts filed in Checking In (this is page 39 of 114).

Making a list, checking it twice

I’ve put together my list for my Highlights of 2010 blog posts. Often that’s the toughest part: just picking a handful of events that tell the story of the year. Because I blog I’ve got built-in material, so telling the story of these events is easy.

Look for things to kick off tomorrow!

Huge snowfall!

Snow in Raleigh, Dec 2010

The predictions of a significant snowfall over the Christmas holiday weekend came true this morning as the storm dumped 8 and a half inches of snow on East Raleigh. When we woke at 7:30 there was about five inches already on the ground. Two hours later we were up to 8 inches. Our final count was 8 and a half of solid snow. Areas just east of us got close to a foot of snow!
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Vintage 1970s Lunch Boxes Revisited

For kids in the ’70s, the cartoon characters and pop stars on their metal lunch boxes were more important than the sliced apples and PB&Js inside. In fact, the coolness of your lunch box could determine your social status for the whole year. In this interview, painter and graphic designer Dee Adams explains how lunch boxes affected playground politics when she was kid, and how she puts her collection of vintage metal ones to use in a think-outside-the-lunch-box way. To learn more about Adams, visit her blog or Flickr page.

via Vintage 1970s Lunch Boxes Revisited: When Pop Culture Ruled the Playground | Collectors Weekly.

Highlights coming up

It’s about time for my annual highlights list, where I look back on my year. The trend has been to wrap up the list in early January, so as to cover everything properly. It has been a full year, no doubt.

N&O runs another ethically-questionable ad

Heat Surge ad

Wow, that didn’t take long.

The News and Observer has gone to the bottom the barrel again by running yet another advertisement that misleads its readers into thinking they can get something for nothing. In spite of me calling the newspaper out earlier for the misleading “free $2” ad, the paper has continued to take money from the shady Universal Syndications company for its misleading ads.

As with the $2 bill ad, there are plenty of consumer complaints about this advertisement. One only has to check the websites of Consumer Reports and the Better Business Bureau to find them. Bloggers have documented the issues with these ads. Consumer Affairs has covered them. The Columbus Dispatch dig deeper into the story, interviewing the poor people who were duped by the deal:
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Murphy’s Law week

Well it’s been an interesting week so far. Sunday afternoon the hard drive in our home mail server decided to crash, leaving us without email for two days. I noticed it Monday morning when I had a conference call of several hours, too. I spent Monday morning scrambling to get everything fixed while on the phone with customers, trying to demonstrate our product. It was a total zoo but somehow I made it.
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Tennis, trash pick-up, and furniture

It’s been a long and busy day for me. Travis had his last tennis lesson tonight: a two-hour session that began at 9. I spent most of that time playing tennis against Gabrielle, the parent of another student. When Travis complained about not feeling well, we headed for the car. There he had a change in heart and returned to his lesson, at which time I began to play tennis with Reid Serozi.
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Blue Cross Blue Shield refund

My feelings for health insurance companies are about as low as they can get. I’ve long been disgusted by their arbitrary rate hikes and discriminatory pricing. So imagine my joy when we received a hefty refund from BCBS for their having overcharged us in the past. The North Carolina Department of Insurance discovered the overcharging and demanded BCBS refund the money to its customers.

I wonder what other hidden charges insurance companies are padding their revenues with? I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this wasn’t the only case of these companies blatantly gouging the public.