amex

The Consumerist reported on a man who bought a harddrive from BestBuy but received a box of tiles, and was refused compensation. Later, he reported that his American Express credit card was able to get a refund from BestBuy, and that he was getting a credit.

Sounds a lot like what happened with my credit card and (andrew's) Wii.

And I had just written in to Consumerist to tell them my Amex card rocks and they gave me a refund for theft within one day. Plus, I get to use it at Costco and get savings. Why the heck aren't all cards like that?

Plus, Happy Halloween! A more interesting halloween post to come, if i have time.

october thoughts

it's been more than a month that i've been absent from writing. the exact reason for that is laziness. a secondary reason is that i now work at lincoln labs, and i manage to stay busy most of the day. sort of.

well, the past few days have been eventful enough to make me want to document life as it passes again. and besides, if i pay annually for this domain, why not make the best use of it?

first, october and the fall season must be my favorite boston season ever. and now that i have a backyard in a tree lined neighborhood, it's hard to resist admiring the inner-city greenscape, which has now quickly turned into a bright mosaic of orange and red. there are some trees whose leaves are so bright yellow that they look plastic.

but the beauty of nature comes hand in hand with its destructive power. in san diego, from the LA area all the way down to chula vista there have been some inconceivable fire disasters. from emails and facebook I can tell that it has already affected the lives of my friends, and i wonder what life would be like if i was still in california. strange, huh? disasters are no fun, i slept through hurricane katrina to wake up to a jumble of pine trees and smashed houses. but this fire has been going on for days, and the damage is just as devastating. it's hard to imagine, but the relatively wealthy, peaceful, luxurious beach communities i used to know may no longer be the same anymore.

all of this makes the crimes of man seem petty. but it still makes you want to take a baseball bat to whoever broke into river st and stole andrew's ps3, wii, and laptop, and erica's laptop and jewelry. i was also one thought away from losing my computer, which had all of my financial information, but i had taken it home the night before. theft never seems scary until you realize someone's been through your house and taken all your valuables. but at least it's not a wildfire, huh?

anyway life is settling down, and soon i will have directv for my home entertainment system. however, studies have shown that happiness is never permanent and that having material things will provide only short term satisfaction. maybe that's why, once in a while, reality hits you in the face with a theft or natural disaster (or even a case of stabbing at an MIT dorm) and you understand that just being able to see the autumn leaves in october is good.