Honda bodywork done!

I picked up my Honda last Friday from Spivey’s Auto Body (I strongly recommend them if you need your car fixed! They RAWK!). Jackie rejected the used fender from the salvage lot because it was crap, so we used an aftermarket fender instead. It’s just a fender, I really don’t care. It saved me 10 whole dollars! The body work ended up costing $1219. Yah, it’s a lot, but honestly, after all the expense of the this wreck, I’m still coming out ahead dollar wise with not having paid for full coverage for the car for the last 2 years. I don’t know if Spivey’s is more or less costly than any other body shop, but I’ll tell you this: how many other shops would paint all the interiors, save your old parts (just in case), wash and detail your car AND offer to help you install new speakers if you need help? I can’t say enough about how NICE the Spiveys are. They are wonderful!

The replacement door is black and they did a stellar job getting everything lined up and working. The ‘new’ door actually works a bit better than the old one! It’s due to all the parts being lubed, etc, which I’ll now do for the passenger door. Here’s a look:

Body work after wreck.
Body work after wreck.

It’s good to have her back and Nick was right, I do feel better about driving now that she’s patched up. I still hesitate to drive around at 5pm, but I was out at 4pm Friday and it felt ok. :-)

Next: sparkly red paint! :-)

Idle hands and all that…

Yah, I’m bored, all right! [a button for an irrelevant item, removed]

Heh, it’d be really fun if this button got all over the internet like the VeriSignOFF buttons did!

Oy. I’ve had the worst cramps in years for the last 2 days. It makes me VERY cranky and very bitter about this whole female thing. Gods damn it, WHY do I have to put up with this?? I’ve had a cycle every 2.5 weeks for the last 3 months AND they’ve been laden with horrible cramps. I feel like little bitty rat turds and I hate everyone/everything. Not that misanthropy is an odd thing for me, but I’m homicidal!

So, here’s a heads up: if you don’t need to talk to me this week, it’s prolly best that you don’t…

GoDaddy has become the new VeriSign

It’s been determined that GoDaddy.com, one of the largest domain registrars, has begun some shady practices to gouge people looking for domains.(SlashDot story) If you go to GoDaddy.com and put a domain in your cart, then cancel the transaction, they will snag the domain and put it on “hold” in order to make the person wanting it pay an inflated fee to “backorder” the domain – or, more accurately, pay more to get GoDaddy.com to release the domain for registration. I can also attest that they will not release a domain properly when it is not renewed. We’re using PervPatrol.net because GoDaddy.com would not release pervpatrol.com for us to renew when the lease lapsed. Not releasing domains, snatching domains that have had an enquiry, basically holding domains hostage is exactly what VeriSign got in trouble for doing and it’s a damn shame that GoDaddy.com feels they must use such tactics to force people to use them.

I wonder if my registrar Bargain Name snatches up domains like GoDaddy.com does? I’ve not had it happen to me, but I did just release a few domains that I never used… Hmm, wonder if they are still being held by bargainname? Let’s see… Nope, it appears that the domains I just released are available. Well, I’ll never recommend GoDaddy.com again. I’ll just stick with Bargainname.com, whom I’ve used for years.

Another HUGE problem that is getting bigger is the search engine companies who buy up every conceivable domain just to point them to their search pages, like this one for herbcellar.net. It sucks and it totally screws up availability of domains. I was looking for a domain for a client the other day and the ones that they needed were ALL being held hostage by a search page or splog (spam blog). I think those people should be hunted down and booted off the internet! They inhibit internet usage and they inhibit many businesses from having a site because they can’t get a name even close to what they need.

The moral of the story is this: use companies that are recommended by your friendly web professional. Just because you can save a dollar doesn’t mean it will benefit you in the long run. Don’t go to a domain registrar until you are ready to buy your domain. Don’t buy random web hosting. If you get a referral, use it!

I use bargainname.com for all my domain leasing/management. I use ITXdesign.com for my hosting. I use IndigoDragon Enterprises for all my web design. Heh. :-)

[updated 6 Feb 09]

A FABulous Anti-Frolicon!

Thanks to Eric and Heather for a really great evening last night! We had a grand time!

Good conversation, good music, some dancey dancey – what more could you want? :-)

We had a great time in L5P yesterday afternoon. We met Jennie Breeden at her comic signing over at Criminal Records. Her comic book is The Devil’s Panties and it is heeelarious! (OH, and do NOT correct her spelling!!) Then we tooled around L5P, talked to Jet about my hamseh tat and met some new peeps. We had snacks at both the Vortex and the Brewhouse!

All in all a wonderful day! We’re napping and recovering today so we’ll be ready to rock tomorrow!

Yay for Anti-Frolicon! :-)

Ruminations on the wreck

The estimator from Travelers came out yesterday and looked over the Honda. Neither of us could figure out why they sent him since I have to pay for the repairs myself, but I think it could be a fraud thing. You know, check out both vehicles in case somehow someone is lying. Dunno, anyway, he looked up the replacement parts for me, which is a big time saver. The parts aren’t as much as I thought they’d be. The fender is $75 and the whole door is $250-300. Not bad at all. The expense is the labour and the paint job afterward. I’m supposed to talk to Mr Spivey about the car tomorrow and I may leave her at his shop if they work on Saturday, which I doubt. I’ll probably end up driving her back here until Monday, but we’ll see.

I’ve also had some insight on the events of the accident since Tuesday as well. I’ve already mentioned the fact that I didn’t stall the car, which is weird. I also realised that my car and I were incredibly lightly damaged for being T boned by a Dodge Durango that weighs 6400#. That is 2.87 TONS, people. As I was pondering this, my Car Crystal popped into my head. I have this crystal that Witch Angel gave to me a while back which I charge with Protection whenever I think to do it. Now, I have my doubts about magick, but I can’t help but think that the charged crystal had something to do with the fact that I didn’t have a scratch or sore muscle after the accident. The accident did not invade the inside of the vehicle at all. It seems too coincidental, you know? Yes, the Durango did skid for 12 feet, but it still doesn’t seem to add up.

Durango, 2.87 tons of metal going ~40Mph vs Honda, 2449# or 1.09 tons of THIN metal going ~2Mph.

See? Gives me the creeps, man. I can tell you this: I will never leave that crystal out of another car I own! Better safe than sorry, eh? :-)

I also realised why I didn’t see the Durango at all. When the traffic light changed, I watched the traffic head up the hill towards me. I never saw the Durango because it was aligned so that from my perspective I only saw the van! The Durango was behind the van coming up the hill, then when the van came over into the turn lane, the Durango was still not visible to me because of the mass of the van. That explains why I was not going fast out of the parking lot – from my perspective the coast was clear! The van was the last vehicle in the line of traffic as far as I could see, so I pulled out rather leisurely instead of zooming out as if there was a car to avoid. I actually remember thinking in the last seconds: SPEED UP!!, but it was too late.

Funny how dreams can bring details out if you let them. I awoke yesterday with these new thoughts. I was completely flummoxed as to how I could possibly miss a fucking giNORmous SUV. It’s not like I didn’t look! Now I understand better how something that seems so freaking obvious like an SUV can be missed. It’s all about perspective.

I guess that goes for everything, really, doesn’t it? Everything is about perspective!