Beat The Bookstore of Orem is gladly handing out rubber checks.

I went to get a refund a few days ago and promptly deposited it into my bank. The check bounced yesterday.

I'm not very happy about their very questionable business practices causing a problem for me. They will give me cash for my bounced check and the return check fee and in the meantime, I will make sure that the student community is aware of something stinky coming from "just across the street from Wal-Mart."

A Google search promptly reveals that this outbreak of rubber checks has also plagued other students in recent days.

Buyer beware.
- Brandon

Apparently I have neglected my blogging duties yet again.

Life is going OK generally speaking. Work, school, family, TV, and the Internets keeps me pretty busy. : )

A few days ago my seven year old wanted to play some games on computer. She is really sharp. She knew exactly how to access the built in Windows games. She showed me a game called Ink Ball. Since I can't really play Minesweeper or Solitaire with much success, I thought it was great. It could get addictive.

Work has kept me very busy lately. We have released a new version of the software... so the release cycle starts all over again. It's like the tides. It comes and goes. I'm just glad I am in the right industry right now and I still have a job.

I am staying busy with homework. I have approximately nine days to get my crap together before the Summer B Block starts. I'll just be glad when Summer semester is over and then I will be starting all over again with Fall semester. I am getting closer to finishing the associates though. Good stuff.

Other than that, I generally hang out on Twitter and Facebook. It's the new "In" thing... in case you were wondering why the blogosphere has apparently dried up. And before I forget, I recommend TweetDeck for Twitter. It's a great way to organize all your tweets from the people you are following.

That's all for now.
Stay tuned.
- Brandonbert

Have I got a treat for you:

Our friends at A & W Fireworks have kindly posted links to their competitors. Until I have an opportunity to purchase from one of them, in my heart, there will only ever be one A & W.

In the meantime, I give you... drumroll please...

wfboom.com

Their case pricing is very similar to A & W. If I had a few hundred dollars, I would place an order for sure. (I say that every year), you would think I would save my money up for the middle of May to guarantee a July 4th delivery. ; )

Whenever I look at wholesale firework prices, it reminds me of playing 8-bit Nintendo games in my youth. Nintendo, satellite, and fireworks defined my childhood. Good times!

- Brandonbert

Some of my colleagues have been offered lunch on the house for doing a good job last quarter. My trusty Microsoft Outlook verified and informed me that I voted on Cafe Rio at 9:31 AM. Hopefully I have enough backers on this vote and it will become a reality today. Yum! : )

- Brandonbert

I still use Outlook 2003 at work. I refuse to upgrade to 2007. For the past two years reminders have NEVER worked for me. I have been burned on dozens of things that I wasn't prepared for.

Yesterday I had had enough. I searched the mighty Google for a solution and the answers were really varied and inconsistent. I finally decided on just making a homebrew reminder utility with an Access database. Before doing that, I ran outlook /cleanreminders from the Run box and restarted Outlook. I tested a reminder before I left for the day and ... nothing. Outlook's mind games get old really fast.

Well today I booted up my computer and suddenly, "you have 98 reminders that are overdue." Well, at least it is working again. I was on the brink of losing my mind. So I guess outlook /cleanreminders worked, but nobody ever said I had to reboot my computer after doing that.

Now, I will at least have a reminder before a three hour install comes up. :)
- Brandon

I find the 2009 H1N1 outbreak fascinating. Mainly due to how easily the virus proliferates. The world is more connected than ever. A potential pandemic can easily spread worldwide in the matter of days.

I read about pandemic preparedness and the Spanish Flu of 1918 - 1919. If this virus is on the same scale as the Spanish Flu, 1.8 billion people could potentially get sick and 18 million could die; if we are basing the calculations on 30% and 1% ratios.

Those ratios would be on the high side of the worse case scenarios envisioned by governments. If this virus turns out to be as lethal as it has been in Mexico and the Spanish Flu, the United States will get through it OK, but it will be devastating in underdeveloped countries. Stay tuned to the WHO and your friendly news for more.

- Brandon

 

I have somber news:

After selling for 41 years, A & W Fireworks has closed its doors and retired. Hats off to A & W. I ordered a few times from them during my high school career. They could only ship on truck freight. UPS, USPS, and FedEx won't ship explosives. But even after covering the cost of truck freight, it was still the best prices around. ( I would be VERY interested if you know of any other company where you can get a brick of firecrackers for $5.00 to $6.00. )

I will never forget how my Dad found them. He was looking at the back of a magazine and a tiny ad said: "Wholesale Fireworks. Send SASE to..." I'm glad he answered the ad, turned it into a family tradition, and passed the tradition down to me.

Goodbye A & W. Your service and pricing was top notch.

- Brandon

One of my colleagues came in this morning complaining that his Harley wouldn't start. He said he got it out of the driveway and all it did is make a Tick Tick Tick sound. This being the happiest moment of his day that was unexpectedly stolen from him, I looked him right in the eye and said: "Geez, couldn't you just kick start it?!"

I don't think that helped his attitude and outlook for the day. Anyway, this reminded me of my old moped circa 1995. I rode with my parents in the back of my Dad's truck out to Kanab from St. George to pick it up for what I thought was a killer deal of $200. 

We got it back home and the seat was worn but it was usable. My Dad had a few connections and he later had all the material on the seat replaced for me. My moped was outfitted with a cooler strapped to the back and I had a big cherry red helmet to complete my ride. Shawn probably remembers my ensemble. (Thankfully my Dad gave me his old truck a year later.)

I'm sure I got a lot of finger pointing and laughing at high school but I didn't care. At least I didn't have to ride the bus anymore. Sure I could've hiked to Harts and then Middleton, but by then, the bus would've beat me home. On a good day, I could fire up my moped and start cruising back to Middleton before other students could get all of their gear into their cars. Good times. I could probably get to the house within five minutes.

... One student constantly got berated for coming back from lunch late. I took pride in getting my two cents in: [With a smug look on my face...] "Geez, I can get my moped home, make Mac & Cheese, watch USA Live, and still get back here on time." ... That was before I starting cutting class to go home and watch satellite and sleep during the day... but that's a different story.

I eventually sold the moped for $50.

- Brandonbert

TweetDeck is my new Desperate Housewives of The Internetz. Not only does Twitter allow random strangers that you have never met in real life to post messages that show up in your feed, TweetDeck will now bring ALL of those feeds to your Desktop in real-time!

It's uselss mind-numbing crap, but it's crap you gotta' have!

- Brandonbert

P.S. Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/brandonbert

The PageViews on DoyleSoft are up, way up! Years of dedication to the domain name, Google Page Rank, Inbound Links, and a good Alexa rank are paying off. I might eventually be forced to upgrade my bandwidth which is a good problem to have. The next step is to closely track conversion ratios. Some Internet geniuses make a pretty good living from a 1% ratio.

Stay tuned.
- Brandonbert