Random Thoughts...

Ugh....I'm sitting at work, scraping everywhere for any ounce of motivation to get things done. So of course, now I have a new distraction...my BLOG.

So let's see...what can I blog about?

SENS

one win away from a finals appearence and they lose at home....ugh...this better just be a blip along the way. But since most of you reading this probably don't care about my Sens or hockey at all, I will not bore you more. They better win though so i can stop ranting about them and watch them in the finals!!!

INSEAD

a) booked my tickets to Singapore. Since I'm officially a student again, I am eligible for student rates!! Just realized that and got an awesome deal. 400$ one way to Singapore in the summer. All you need is an ISIC card.
b) Update on where I'm living. I just realized my last blog update regarding my housing in Singapore was that I'm living in a two bedroom place in Dover. Well unforutnately that didn't work out since the two bedroom was taken right before we put our deposit down. The fortunate part is that we got a 3 bedroom and found another roommate. So now there are 3 of us at Dover in a 3 bdrm. Bharath (who's blog I've linked to) is one of my roommates. He's really lucky and travelling around Europe for a few months before starting at INSEAD. I'm travelling vicariously through him.
c) Student Meets in Fonty, SIngapore, NYC, Boston, SF, Toronto, MExico, Lima, Tokyo, HK, Shanghai, Delhi, Mumbai, Cairo, Beirut, London...HOW ABOUT FREAKING CHICAGO?????? Is nobody at INSEAD currently living in the midwest? Am I the only one who will not have met someone from class of 08 before starting? NOT FAIR.


LAPTOP

So for those of you that don't know, I've been debating what kind of laptop to get for INSEAD next year. I'm a bit of a gadget "freak", so I enjoy having all the latest toys. So really I wanted a cool new box that I could take out to the bar and pick up with...(not really)...seriously though I wanted something cool and practical that could replace my desktop(s).

So i was going through Netvestibule (INSEAD's hot or not), and came across postings where people were interested in getting a MAC...a mac? why? so it can look cool and they can pay twice as much and not run ANYTHING ON IT? speaking of which let me rant about those STUPID mac ads. Who are they really targetting? I mean PCs can be whatever you want them to be. Can a mac do that? Don't you want something that can be customized (hardware and software), run different applications not created or necessarily endorsed by an evil company? Wait..you can't do that on a mac, cuz nobody cares and nobody ever builds anything for them. Try finding a quality game made for the mac...goood luck. And for those that argue back saying you can run windows on a mac? If you are doing that then why are you paying twice as much? lol

Anyways, to each his/her own. For me after all the research I decided I wanted a tablet. A tablet is perfect for class, you can take notes using a "pen", you can use it as a computer. They are thin and light like regular laptops, and they run either Vista or XP. The only problem is they are bit expensive. Fortunately I found a great Lenovo deal where the Tablet ended up being 50% off. So I got the following system for 1400$:
X60 Tablet
12" SXGA+ screen (1400X1024)
Core 2 Duo 1.6
Windows Vista Business
2 GB RAM
120 GB HD
8 cell battery (8 hour battery life)
3.7 lbs

I'm pretty happy with the deal I got, as I was expecting to spend around that much for a non-tablet notebook.

RANT OF THE DAY
I hate People Energy. They are the local gas company in Chicago. So here is my story. Back in December I signed up for automatic billing. This means they should charge me automatically for the month's bill and deduct it from my credit card. Fine, everything taken care of right? Not exactly...

So the other day I decide I want to cook, so I attempt to turn on the stove...NO GAS...ugh..what happened? So I go downstairs and go through the general pile of letters with wrong addresses and what do I find? A letter from people's gas warning me that they will shut off the gas if I dont pay. Curious I check my emails from December, and sure enough they sent me confirmation that I've been signed up for auto-payment. So I call them up and ask what's going on.


People gas lady: How y'all doin'? Can i elp u?
Me: YOU SHUT OFF MY GAS WTF???
Lady: yi know ya shoulda paid ur billz
Me: I had automatica payment.
Lady: you HAD automatic payment, but we cancelled it back in January.
Me: Thanks for the notice.
Lady: We sent you mail advising you of the change.
Me: You've been sending mail to the wrong address. I live on a UNIT on floor 4, I dont just live on the whole floor.
Lady: That's not our problem
Me: So you send me a notification by email when i sign up, but you dont let me know by email when for some reason you decide to randomly opt me out.
Lady: uh-huh...that's our policy. in fairness though we sent you a notice by regular mail
me: yeah to the wrong address
lady: unfortunately...but I have it changed now.
Me: TURN ON MY GAS
Lady: Not until you pay 250$
Me: Fine charge me
Lady: ok..(she takes credit card info and puts through)...its on hold dont look like it goin thru...u have another card
me: (puzzled)...ok take this
lady: didn't go through either
me: fine I'll pay online ( go and pay online)
lady: call me back when you have paid so we can reconnect

So I pay online. 2 days later I check and 3 payments have gone through for 250$ each. ANGRY, and wanting my gas back I call them

lady: can I help u?
me: probably not, but you charged me 3 times and disconnected my gas without notice.
lady: ill try my best to help
me: try harder
lady: sorry about the triple charge...look on the brightside, now you dont have to pay for a while...(laughs)
me: not funny
lady: so the next appointment we have for reconnecting your gas is on Monday from 11-5pm
me: first of all it's TUESDAY. You didnt have to come in my unit to disconnect, why do you have to come to reconnect? Secondly, 11-5pm??? What is that? I have a job, I have a life, am I supposed to sit at home all day waiting for you to show up? Can't you give me a more specific time.
lady: no sir we need to get into your apartment to reconnect but dont need to get in to disconnect. Also we dont have specific time slots. So we'll see you on Monday. Thanks for doing business with People's Gas. Have a nice day
me: cancel my gas. Its summer anyways and I dont use my stove. Screw you and your stupid monopolistic company. Cick.

So now i have no gas. Whatever, It's not like I've been cooking. But these people are idiots. What unit were they billing me for anyways if they had the wrong address? How can they have such stupid policies? Ugh.... Eventually I did cave in and schedule the appointment for Monday. I wish I had time to sue them, just on principle. But really I dont think it would impact them or their policies.

Anyways thats my rant and why i HATE people's gas.