Posts Tagged ‘experiences’

How to guide: getting a Virgin Mobile iPhone 4/4S

laelene Posted in how to guides，Tags: , , , , ,
19 November 2012
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The past couple of days, my cousin and I have been trying to navigate the confusing world of contract-less iPhone usage.  After doing some research, Virgin Mobile USA appeared to have the best deal – as it stands, they’re offering $35/month for 300 minutes and unlimited text & data.  You can then save $5/month and bring it down to $30/month by signing up for automatic billing with a credit card or Paypal account.

screenshot of virgin mobile usa phone plans

From the website, it was unclear if we had to buy an iPhone from them or if we could get it elsewhere and then activate that device.  I called their customer service to ask and was told that as long as it was a new device that had not been activated with any other service, I could buy it elsewhere.  Wrong.  As it turns out, you MUST get an iPhone designated for Virgin (this maybe not be the case for an iPhone 5 though).  This was a hard lesson learned after trying to activate an unlocked iPhone 4 (no-go since it was not CDMA compatible) and even trying to purchase a Sprint iPhone since Virgin uses Sprint towers for their network.

Why all that hassle?  Why not just buy the iPhone from Virgin Mobile?  Well, most importantly it was due to price.  The Apple Store was selling an iPhone 4 for $450 while Virgin was charging $550.  Secondarily, it was due to timing – you get it at a store and the device is immediately in your possession, but you get it online and you have to wait for it to ship.  Since it’s the final weeks of fall semester for my cousin, she needs the phone more urgently so she can figure out why the bus never came or look something up/practice on the go.  Plus, she’s waited so long that she just wants to finally be using her new phone instead of pining for it.

So did we have to buy from Virgin after discovering the Apple Store devices were no use?  Actually, no.  As it turns out, Best Buy (and possibly other electronics stores) carry Virgin iPhones AND they were on sale for $350 a pop!  A quick search showed me that the Best Buy Mobile store in the mall carried them.  Happily, we went to purchase it there.  There was a slight hiccup when the sales associate told us they didn’t carry them, but when I mentioned it said they did online she went to the back and asked her manager, who was aware that they had the device in question.  Plus, we used our Best Buy RewardsZone card to get bonus points.  Yippee!  Make sure you check before going to the store and let the associate know the website indicated that they have the device if you’re rejected at first.

Now if you’re reading this soon after I post it, you’ll find that Virgin has actually lowered their iPhone 4 price to $350 as well, so you can get the same deal from them for now.  I’m not sure if this is just a promotional price decrease for the upcoming shopping craze, or if they might keep that price around longer.  If I were you, I’d snatch it while I can.

Swerving madness

laelene Posted in photo blog, video blog，Tags: , , , ,
17 November 2012
1

Today while driving to Green Festival LA, I got in an accident.  A car was merging into my lane and I was watching it, letting off my gas so it could get in.  Suddenly, the car behind it decided to also merge into my lane, but then I guess the first car had braked, so it had to swerve and cut in front of me, which caused me to swerve to avoid it.  I managed to narrowly miss it, only to roll off the shoulder into the mud and slide right into the guardrail.  The one good thing today?  Bruins beat Trojans 38-28.  😀

chp officer who arrived at the scene stepping away after talking to some firefighters

First an ambulance stopped to check on us, then a tow truck pulled over but it wasn’t with my insurance, then this CHP officer came along, and then the firetruck pulled over briefly.

A total of three or four CHP vehicles stopped at one point or another, and I had to explain what happened over and over as each batch came. Three of them asked if I wanted to file a report and by the third, I had one thing clarified: the only thing filing a report would do is confirm that I am to blame for hitting the guardrail. Ok seriously, why would I file a report so you can charge me for the guardrail?! So random.

Oh, and while talking to the ambulance ladies, we happened to witness another crash right in front of us as a car got rear-ended. Eventually all the law enforcement personnel migrated between our two sites and finally figured out that we were two separate incidents.

front left of car smashed into guardrail at side of highway

Just as I was reacting that I might not hit the car in front of me, I realized I was hurtling towards the guardrail and the mud was too slippery to stop in. In retrospect I should have stayed on the road more or maybe even swerved again (though that could have caused me to spin out), but alas I hit. Boom.

front left car wheel and bumper smashed into guardrail

Oh my poor car! One of my first reactions was relief that the airbags didn’t deploy. That must mean I had slowed down enough that the impact wasn’t as bad. When I went to open my door, it got a bit stuck and creaked (see video).

creaking car door from Mary Qin on Vimeo.

car pulled away from guardrail awaiting tow

The AAA tow guy couldn’t get my car to start without some serious shaking and coughing from my poor Corolla, so he called in a flatbed and pulled it away from the guardrail in the mean time.

damaged car being placed on tow truck

And there she goes, getting atop the flatbed for the ride to the tow yard.

the damage to the front left part of the car

The tow guy thought the axle might be broken – yikes! We’ll see what the ultimate verdict is.

Butting heads

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , , ,
15 November 2012
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molly the cat lounging on sofa cushion with arm dangling

Molly in one of her calmer moods.


Ok so I’ve got this cat, her name is Molly.  She’s like 13 years old and I’ve had her for about a year and a half.  When I saw her at the shelter, she was curled up on a nice bed and didn’t really move, so I figured she’d be a fun lap pet.  When we brought her home, the first week or so I was afraid that she was going to die just like that – she wouldn’t eat, she wouldn’t drink, and she barely moved.  We took her for her free checkup and the vet said that this and that might be wrong with her… my mom stood firm in her belief that we’re just giving Molly a nice home to live out her life and we won’t spend excess money to save her from this and that disease.  I was super sad but wasn’t about to shell out the money myself so we decided to just see how it went.

I think about 10 days in is when Molly started to move around.  She explored the house and I even caught her drinking from the toilet (aha! so she wasn’t dying of thirst).  Soon enough, she was as spry as any cat and even went around the house acting like she built it, owned it, and ran it.  While I was happy that she was totally fine and actually quite active, I discovered that she actually doesn’t like being held.  So much for my lap cat idea.  Sometimes she gets into these terrible moods, where she’ll growl at you for no reason.  She’ll get mad because you walked by, because she walked by you, because you did this or didn’t do that, etc.  I didn’t want to encourage this behavior, so whenever she got grumpy, I’d keep pushing.  If she didn’t want me touching her I’d hug her.  Sometimes I’d growl with her, or give her a stern finger.  Unfortunately, this hasn’t worked and I think I’ve figured it out – we’re both super stubborn.

The more you push, the more I push back (and the more you push back).  So, our little battles escalate until Molly gets so upset that she attacks or runs away.  I can’t help it though; nothing irritates me more than backing down when she’s the one initiating the negativity.  I was hoping to train her to see that when she got mad, I didn’t leave her alone, so trying to scare me wouldn’t work.  But it seems that all she sees is that she’s not happy and I’m annoying.  It’s a pity!  I’ve never tried to start a fight with her, but that seems to be how it all ends up.  And that’s what stubbornness can get you.

Pampered again

laelene Posted in photo blog，Tags: , , , , ,
13 November 2012
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My second time around at Pamper Me Fabulous brought about a heftier gift bag, a taste of the cuisine, and sweet new products. What I did miss were the free services, which I signed up for but came too late to get a chance before the day was over.

room full of gift bags given to attendees of pamper me fabulous

My first order of business was to get a swag bag full of goodies!

expert corner stage at pamper me fabulous with shirtless guys giving out hats

Then I wandered around and attended this panel where shirtless guys gave away hats.

ladies sitting on hillside facing ocean view at terranea during pamper me fabulous event

For lunch I went to enjoy the view like these ladies.

panoramic view of the pacific ocean from terranea resort

It’s a sweeping view up here.

view of rocky beach and red cliffs from terranea resort

What glorious cliffs.

view of pamper me fabulous bazaar area in ballroom of terranea resort

Back to the hubbub of the bazaar!

view of terranea resort and ocean from up the hill

By mid-afternoon I was worn and ready to go. You get a nice view leaving Terranea Resort.

a peek at items included in the pamper me fabulous gift bag given to attendees this year

My baggie was brimming with goodies.

sign showing yield to golfers at terranea resort

Haha, what a golfing community it must be.

small reusable bamboo boat-like tray bowl used for salad at terranea resort

After gobbling down my salad, I noticed the bowl thing wasn’t paper! So of course I had to take it home with me. 😛

Looong day

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , ,
10 November 2012
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I’ve had a pretty long day traveling & getting some work done and boy am I pooped!  While it’s only been about 20 hours and certainly is not one of the more stressful times I’ve been through, it has tired me out nonetheless.  From an early morning to catch a flight cross-country to pit stops for food & groceries to settling in to work, I haven’t really taken the time to recover.  I guess it was partly because I had so much stuff to do – packages to open and enjoy, new items to list for sale, and bonding time with family.  Now that the excitement has died down, I suddenly feel the achiness and droopy eyes.  I’m sure I’ll sleep well tonight!

Tomorrow’s another busy day (time for Pamper Me Fabulous again!) and I’ll need to rest up.

Squirrel sightings

laelene Posted in photo blog，Tags: , , , , ,
08 November 2012
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One day, not long after Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy brought two windy, rainy days to our area, I was out walking and came across no less than 8 squirrels when normally I would have seen one or two.  They must have been hungry after the storm, because they were ALL eating (or scavenging for food).  Here are just a few I managed to capture on film (or so to speak)…

squirrel perched precariously high up on tree branch

Yes, that little glob is a squirrel all the way up there!

zoomed in on squirrel perched precariously high up on tree branch

Here’s a zoomed in shot of that squirrel, nibbling on a snack as the branch swayed in the wind.

squirrel with high arched back digging into ground

This squirrel was doing some serious damage and really got into it.

collage of squirrels in tree and foraging on ground

I even put together a collage of some of the squirrels I came across.

Down time

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , ,
05 November 2012
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What do you think of when you hear work from home, self-employed, entrepreneur?  Do you imagine someone huddled over their laptop all day and all night, tapping away at those keys?  Do you imagine someone kicking back with a cool drink on a warm day, enjoying the sunshine?  Or maybe you think of someone lounging around in pajamas and slippers, cupping a steaming cup of coffee and a book.  Whatever the case, people usually consider working from home and working for yourself to be less stressful than a typical office job.

When I first started working from home, I imagined being able to enjoy myself no matter where I was (and being able to go anywhere no matter when it was).  For the most part, that has been true, but another thing that I’ve wrestled with is being able to set boundaries with my time.  I’ve enjoyed far more freedom in terms of where I am and when I work, but then it all blends together.  Lately I’ve found that I think so much about work that I even dream about it and disrupt my rest.  Without realizing it, stress has creeped up on me because I am the one responsible if things go wrong and I am the only one managing all that there is to take care of.  The pressure of that doesn’t seem so bad, yet here I am, needing a break.

In a way I feel guilty – my days are hardly ever as busy and fast-paced as my previous job, so I often feel like I’m not working hard enough.  However, just because I don’t have 9-10 hours filled with work and then a respite before it all starts again doesn’t mean that I’m working less hard.  As it turns out, the entire night and weekend concept no longer applies to me and any day, any time is work time.  Whether I’m home, out eating or shopping, or taking time off for social activities, work is just a few taps away (thank you phone apps).  So in that sense, I never get rest and I never get away from the looming work that follows me around.

This weekend, it finally caught up with me.  I’ve been so overwhelmed by the constant checklist of things to do for work that I just had to mentally check out for awhile.  So, for the past two days I hardly did anything for work and instead vegged out to a variety of random entertainment.  I buckled back up and got a bunch of work done today, but I’m still not ready to throw myself back into things again.  Perhaps I need to learn to set better boundaries so I periodic bouts of worklessness.  Harder said than done though!

Shipping headaches

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , ,
31 October 2012
0

Written a week ago:

I had a down day today. Managing this whole eBay thing has started to wear on me as I move past the honeymoon phase and learn some of the not-so-pleasant aspects of being a seller. It started off great – listing and selling items was exciting and mailing out packages was fun. But now that I’ve sent out dozens of items, I find it increasingly challenging to manage inventory, get the right shipping products (particularly appropriate box sizes), and find a good balance between price and shipping speed/service.

Mostly it has to do with shipping woes. For the second time now, someone has contacted me saying they have not received their item after waiting nearly a month. In cases like this, I am so powerless yet I feel responsible. I want to help but should I have to replace or refund an item every time the post office or customs screws me over? While I appreciate the low prices I get with USPS, I feel like there’s no accountability for when items are lost, damaged, or stolen. I have no recourse and it is disheartening.

In a similar vein, I have no idea what customs offices might be doing with my shipments… are they holding them? Did they never receive them? Will my customer get their package soon, or at all? It’s so frustrating to not know and not be able to provide any comfort to the recipient patiently waiting for the delivery.  Additionally, I constantly worry about how much abuse my packages will suffer after finding out some of my items were crushed in transit.  How do I ensure that the items are well-protected yet don’t add so much weight to the packaging that shipping costs go up?  It’s a fine line to walk.

Now, with some time to think:

All of this has led me to an old idea I had a long time ago – wouldn’t it be nice to “rent” space in a suitcase or car that will be traveling from somewhere near you to a destination close to the one you want?  People are constantly covering so much ground and not taking advantage of all the space they have to bring things with them.  If we could tap into a network where travelers can offer up the extra space they have and shippers/mailers can then pay for that space, wouldn’t that be a great way to take advantage of the travel that’s already being done?  With the rise of community marketplaces, this seems more and more a sensible reality for the future.  If I can trust the listings on Airbnb, I can certainly find a way to create a similar level of trust for listings involving assisted shipping.

Granted, there are plenty of challenges to consider, especially when it comes to international shipping, but this is a problem I’d really like to help solve.  I can just imagine the powerful community that can be created around this, and with it a built-in level of service unlike that of many shipping services.  After all, each person signing up to help deliver items wants to maintain a pristine reputation or else they won’t get more opportunities to earn money.  We’d need to integrate some technologies to assist them in the tracking process, among other things, but I wonder if overall it’d be worth all the effort.  Would I really be able to drive down the price, yet provide optimal service?  I’d sure like to try.

One way

laelene Posted in photo blog, video blog，Tags: , , , ,
29 October 2012
0

Last week, we were driving by the Kennedy Center when all traffic got diverted to the opposite side of the road and suddenly we found ourselves on a one-way on the wrong side of the road.  Once the cones were gone, we were free to get back to the right side (which Panda did), but some of the cars continued on their merry way like nothing was wrong.  So random!  Well, now that I’ve heard that Ellen was getting an award in the Kennedy Center recently, I wonder if that’s why our route was disrupted…

driving on left side of road divider due to traffic redirect for special event at kennedy center in dc

The right side was reserved for Kennedy Center traffic only.

driving on left side of road after getting redirected due to special event at kennedy center in dc

A few blocks later, the divider was gone and we got back over to the right again.

one way, two way from Mary Qin on Vimeo.

Hurricane Sandy

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , ,
28 October 2012
0

Well, here we go! A few days ago it became clear that Sandy would affect our region, so since then Panda and I have been gearing up, stocking up on food and filling up all the water bottles in the household with fresh filtered water. We’ve brought out the flashlights and charged up our devices. Now it’s time to settle in and wait it out.

As a federal employee, Panda has seen a notification on TV that his office will be closed tomorrow so we’ll be holed up together as the worst of the storm hits us. I’ll be watching the fury of the winds and rain as they pick up and probably post pictures/videos in the coming days. Other than that I expect to relax a bit since I’m pretty sure USPS is closed, so I can’t send out my packages. Maybe I’ll even get some reading done.

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