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Thursday, August 30, 2001
I wanted to add this... Credit Card Machine Problems Solved!Thanks to a very kind woman named Donna at Airborne, we were able to get the correct airbill number and record of receipt for the credit card processing software we'd returned. We faxed it to the credit card processing company. Within a few days, the $499.00 appeared in our bank account. I can't believe it. I thought it would never end. (Or at least not end equitably.) Not that this restores my faith in anything, but it was nice.Actually, this was written on 29 August 2001. Just getting to posting it now ... Tama JanowitzI’ve said that it’s exciting to have worked with Tama Janowitz. It’s a strange thing I would have thought about, but never expected to actually happen. I mean, who am I to be talking to best-selling novelists? (The most surreal part of my life right now is that she’s not the only best-selling author with whom I’ve talked.) Today Tama got a baby angora ferret from Marc at Parrots of the World. We were supposed to meet her there but we were a little late, and she had to catch a train back home. But I’m glad she got the ferret. She’s wanted an angora. Now she has one. I hope he (she?) blends in with her existing business easily. Maybe I’ll tell her the secret to creating a lap ferret.While I was on the phone with Tama this morning, trying to set up the angora thing with Marc (nothing like leaving these things to the last moment), she mentioned that she liked the editorial I wrote about being able to get back to just enjoying healthy ferrets (after a year of tending to sick ferrets). Neat. AnimalsWe went to Parrots of the World today to photograph a bunch of different little animals. I’d never really thought about it very much, the different kinds of animals and their temperaments.First we photographed some type of hamsters. Very cute. But they liked to nip a little. They moved kind of quickly. Then we photographed gerbils. Way too fast! I can’t imagine being a little kid and enjoying these speedy little things. My older brothers and I had gerbils when we were children; mine was named Frito Bandito, Mark’s was named Speedy Gonzales, I don’t remember what Mike called his gerbil. Then we went on to some other kind of hamster, smaller, just as inclined to speed off as the first hamsters. These weren’t nippy really, but seemed somewhat delicate for grubby children’s hands. Then came the mice. Docile, sweet little mice. They moseyed around, climbed on my hand, and sniffed me. I rather liked them. We’d had ... well, Mike and Mark had mice when we were slightly older kids. They were all white, I think. There’s a whole chapter about the mice. Not a nice chapter, so it’ll have to wait. I could see kids with mice. Guinea Pigs (actually, cavies). It’s like shooting a still life. These are, by far, the nicest little animals for children, I think. They’re sturdier than some of the hamsters and gerbils and such, and they’re less likely to run off. True, this might make them boring. But they do come in very pretty colors. I call the tri-colored Guinea Pigs “Neapolitan” like the tri-colored ice cream. Next came the chinchilla. Very soft. What else would you say about a chinchilla? We’d just finished photographing the chinchilla when some kids and their mom wandered downstairs where we were taking the photos. The three little girls were enamored of the chinchilla. I couldn’t answer most of their questions. Their mom commented that it was terrible that they make them into “... you know.” I guess she didn’t want to upset the girls. Or herself, maybe. The further horror of making chinchillas into coats is how tiny the animals are -- how many have to die for just one jacket. The chinchilla was a little jumpy, though I suppose when they’re used to their environment and their humans, they do better. Finally, rabbits. The lop-eared bunny kept bobbing his head. I’m sure this meant something in rabbit. The brown bunny was more static. For children? Maybe. The most amazing part of the photoshoot was that I didn’t have an allergy or asthma attack. Saturday, August 18, 2001
RantingI hate when I get annoyed like this. I just found out that people who we helped out early on have betrayed us in a sense -- again. Funny how when it benefits them, it’s “we’re all little guys, we’re friends, we have to help each other out,” but as soon as they’re on the giving end it’s “just business.”Advice: Never become friends with business associates. They are not your friends. Do not believe them if they claim to be your friends. They are not your friends. They will turn on you. They will hurt you. It’s OK to pretend you’re friends, but always know that you are not friends. As they used to say on Hill Street Blues: “Do it to them before they do it to you.” Lesson learned. Well, that didn’t help. The saga of the credit card processing company continues. Now they’ve charged us for the software that didn’t work, and that we returned to them, and the terminal and printer. But that’s not the whole story -- no! It’s not enough that they screwed us like that. They also say they never got the software back (they claim they have no way to log it in) so we have to obtain proof of delivery from Airborne. But that’s not all! Airborne says they don’t have a proper record of that delivery. Now we have to wait to see if Airborne can figure out what their driver did when he picked up the software with the call tag from Nova. So where does that leave us? Out $499.00 that I’m quite sure we’ll never get back. Meaning that the terminal that should have cost us $411.00 has now reached a total of $1,201.00. It’s no wonder we had to drop our health insurance. Advice: Trust no one. Get everything in writing. Take names. That didn’t help either. The Good News Is ...The good news is that right on the heels of the New York Post piece, I’m quoted in Time Out New York and one of Eric’s photos is featured prominently this week. It’s an article about ferrets in New York City. A positive ferret piece. Some time soon it should be up on their web site. I'll let you know.Monday, August 13, 2001
Weird surprise -- the bluelines for Issue #31 arrived on Friday morning. The film had only gotten up there on Wednesday. Fast! They should have the blues tomorrow morning (well, later this morning). The issue will be in print before we know it!
Did I Mention...?I was updating the database today when I came across several little notes from subscribers. Just a line or two jotted onto the renewal form. These little notes always make me feel good. I don't know how many people write little notes on their renewal forms to other magazines -- I'm guessing not many, though I could be wrong. Even so, how many times do the people responsible for the editorial actually get to see those comments? It's encouraging that people feel moved to send a little message on their renewal form. After all, the renewal itself is a message of approval.Little notes like that make my day. Jackie ChanA few days ago I mentioned that I love Jackie Chan. Eric and I finally got to see the movie (Rush Hour 2). Not that I didn't like it well enough, but I prefer when he gets to clown around a little more. I hope he does more movies like Shanghai Noon. That was more reminiscent of his older Hong Kong stuff where he just seemed to be having more fun. Maybe it's that he was younger then. Maybe it's that he was usually choreographing the stunts and all that. At any rate, it was great to get my Jackie Chan fix. |
