Today I was sitting at the computer looking at YouTube videos and my email program told me I had email. So I went to look and here is this one email from a business called RapidShare AG showing me my account information. Then a 2nd email which came at the exact same time from PayPal showing that I had been charged €29.99 EUR.
At first I thought it was just another email phishing scam asking me to click a link and give up my password so I just opened a new browser and manually typed www.paypal.com. I entered my password and sure enough there was that euro dollar charge and they did the exhcange rate thing so the total that will come out of my checking account in 3 business days is $37.34.
So without hesitation I searched for the PayPal phone number and called them and told them "I DID NOT AUTHORIZE THIS!!!!" I told the guy on the phone that I don't even know what RapidShare is and he said it's a file sharing website. How did he know that? Perhaps PayPal knows about this yet they are still allowing people to be charged for this? I don't know. He walked me through the process of disputing the claim but said it could take 10 days.
10 Days? It only takes 3 days for them to take the money directly out of my checking account. I only have $18 available until my next check. So I called Bank of America and told them what happened and I told them that I talked to PayPal about it and I wanted to make sure that they don't get their money from me through my checking account which should be in 3 days. Well, that costs $20 and like I said, I have $18 available so now I gotta put $2 in the bank to cover my ass because if they take $20 and I have $18 they're going to charge me $20 insufficient fund fee lol. That's $40.
Why should I end up having to pay $40 when I'm the one being scammed?
OK so I went to the Google search engine and found out that this is indeed a scam. Someone didn't just sign me up for this website or service, this company somehow got my PayPal password and they charged me for an account that I never asked for.
I was going to call them because PayPal has all the details but they are in Switzerland. I can't call Switzerland! First of all they would probably put me on hold for 20 minutes and my phone bill would skyrocket. I could use my PSP with Skype but then I'd have to pay Skype more money to make a international call. The details also provide the company email address so I emailed them telling them that I disputed the claim with PayPal so they might as well just reverse their charge because they are not getting any money from me.
So now with all that out in the open, I have to go to the ATM machine to deposit $2.
UPDATE: This transaction did go through to the bank on that Monday which means the stop payment thing through Bank of America didn't take. In fact when I called them they said that it wouldn't have worked anyway because that is supposed to be for a monthly stop payment, not for a 1 time stop payment. I don't know why they were going to use that then if that wasn't for what I needed. Gawd!
Our dog Flower had a medical emergency so Chip had to call his brother to ask him to NOT cash my rent check which means that since it did go through to my banking account I didn't go in the negative so I don't have to worry about insufficient funds fee... for now.
The refund did go through with PayPal and the money is back in my PayPal account. However, they didn't put it back in my checking account. I wish they just put it back where they got it from. But, I think I'm going to just leave it in there just in case something happens like this again. Also it's good to save money right?
So everything worked out in the end.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
How To Change a Dell DJ-20 Battery
I just posted this video on YouTube. It's sort of a tutorial on how to change the battery in a Dell DJ-20.
Change Dell DJ-20 Battery
I got this for Christmas in 2004 but it didn't actually arrive until the middle of January 2005 so technically the day I got it is when the warranty started. Over the next year the battery would start to die so when I charge it it's supposed to have 8 hours of battery life but that started going down more and more until it wouldn't even turn on at all.
I called Dell about getting a new battery but since my warranty had lapsed (they never contacted me to renew it, I didn't think to call them because I thought I had a 2 year warranty, that's what I chose when we bought it through their website) so they refused to help me. I told the person I was talking to that I basically had a $318 paper weight. The guy said yeah I understand but without a warranty there is nothing we can do. I asked about buying a new battery, they wanted like $75 for a new one. I couldn't afford that.
So it sat in a drawer until September 2008 when I wanted to start riding my bike for exercise. I didn't want to ride without my tunes so I went on eBay and found a battery for a Dell DJ-20. Unfortunately it was .50mm too wide and it would've ended up costing me more than the battery was worth to send it back so I said screw it, I'll make it work.
In this video I will demonstrate how to remove the old one and put in the new one. Although mine I couldn't put it in so I had to tape it to the back. But it works and that's all that matters. I actually put the Dell DJ into a neoprene camera case to protect it.
I don't know why but when I was video taping myself doing this my hands all of a sudden got so shaky. I was kinda afraid of breaking it when pulling the old battery out even though I had to put it in for this video and then take it back out lol. I knew what I was doing because I did it before but I got nervous all of a sudden I guess.
Anyway, for those people who have been searching for this, here you go. I would've embedded the video in here but it just looks better at the YouTube website since it's widescreen.
Change Dell DJ-20 Battery
I got this for Christmas in 2004 but it didn't actually arrive until the middle of January 2005 so technically the day I got it is when the warranty started. Over the next year the battery would start to die so when I charge it it's supposed to have 8 hours of battery life but that started going down more and more until it wouldn't even turn on at all.
I called Dell about getting a new battery but since my warranty had lapsed (they never contacted me to renew it, I didn't think to call them because I thought I had a 2 year warranty, that's what I chose when we bought it through their website) so they refused to help me. I told the person I was talking to that I basically had a $318 paper weight. The guy said yeah I understand but without a warranty there is nothing we can do. I asked about buying a new battery, they wanted like $75 for a new one. I couldn't afford that.
So it sat in a drawer until September 2008 when I wanted to start riding my bike for exercise. I didn't want to ride without my tunes so I went on eBay and found a battery for a Dell DJ-20. Unfortunately it was .50mm too wide and it would've ended up costing me more than the battery was worth to send it back so I said screw it, I'll make it work.
In this video I will demonstrate how to remove the old one and put in the new one. Although mine I couldn't put it in so I had to tape it to the back. But it works and that's all that matters. I actually put the Dell DJ into a neoprene camera case to protect it.
I don't know why but when I was video taping myself doing this my hands all of a sudden got so shaky. I was kinda afraid of breaking it when pulling the old battery out even though I had to put it in for this video and then take it back out lol. I knew what I was doing because I did it before but I got nervous all of a sudden I guess.
Anyway, for those people who have been searching for this, here you go. I would've embedded the video in here but it just looks better at the YouTube website since it's widescreen.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Neat Breakfast Ideas
I was just thinking of something. Why go to McDonald's for a breakfast sandwich when you have the Big City Sliders Station? All you have to do is buy some ground up sausage meat then roll it into balls and press them with this thing but don't cook it in there. Just pop them out and cook them on the skillet (or BBQ).
Then beat some eggs and pour them into the 5 spaces and of course, as per instructions cook on low heat for 4 minutes. Obviously since it's eggs you can't press them and you can't use that top press piece to put on top of the eggs, it's too heavy and the eggs will come out and get all over the place. So what I think is let them cook for a few minutes. Since they are small spaces they won't take that long to cook then you can just add the lid when it's pretty solid. It says that you can flip them so that's a good idea I guess if you can. Make sure you use Pam.
Then once you are done cooking the eggs and the sausage take some English muffins or better yet, make some fresh baked biscuits. Preferably from the recipe from the Bisquick mix instead of the ones that are in a tube. Those are never right. But when those are done just slice it then place the sausage on the bottom, a piece of cheese (optional) on top of the sausage then add the egg on top.
I'm sure this will be such a good sandwich. And since they are so tiny you could enjoy a few of them. I can't wait to try this. When I do I'm going to take some pictures and add it to the recipes page heh.
Then beat some eggs and pour them into the 5 spaces and of course, as per instructions cook on low heat for 4 minutes. Obviously since it's eggs you can't press them and you can't use that top press piece to put on top of the eggs, it's too heavy and the eggs will come out and get all over the place. So what I think is let them cook for a few minutes. Since they are small spaces they won't take that long to cook then you can just add the lid when it's pretty solid. It says that you can flip them so that's a good idea I guess if you can. Make sure you use Pam.
Then once you are done cooking the eggs and the sausage take some English muffins or better yet, make some fresh baked biscuits. Preferably from the recipe from the Bisquick mix instead of the ones that are in a tube. Those are never right. But when those are done just slice it then place the sausage on the bottom, a piece of cheese (optional) on top of the sausage then add the egg on top.
I'm sure this will be such a good sandwich. And since they are so tiny you could enjoy a few of them. I can't wait to try this. When I do I'm going to take some pictures and add it to the recipes page heh.
The Heat Is Gone
I know the song is "The Heat Is On" but for us in Bakersfield, it's gone. This is for the time being. The last few days has been really hot, like 95°F-100°F temperatures.
I went bike riding this morning and it was nice and cool but not too cold. I thought for sure it was going to be a scorcher today but it wasn't. Although there were times that I had to pull over into the shade because the sun was beating me down like Chris Brown on Rihanna. Too soon?
I looked at the forecast until Monday and it's going to be in the late 70's to mid 80's all week. Then the 6-10 day forecast it shows next week is going to be in the mid 80's too. Even on May 1st which is usually the day the 100°F temperatures start coming.
Although, you can never rely 100% on the weather forecast because it's not always accurate. So perhaps by May 1st it will be so hot I'm gonna be bike riding at 5am.
I went bike riding this morning and it was nice and cool but not too cold. I thought for sure it was going to be a scorcher today but it wasn't. Although there were times that I had to pull over into the shade because the sun was beating me down like Chris Brown on Rihanna. Too soon?
I looked at the forecast until Monday and it's going to be in the late 70's to mid 80's all week. Then the 6-10 day forecast it shows next week is going to be in the mid 80's too. Even on May 1st which is usually the day the 100°F temperatures start coming.
Although, you can never rely 100% on the weather forecast because it's not always accurate. So perhaps by May 1st it will be so hot I'm gonna be bike riding at 5am.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Big City Sliders Station
I got the Big City Sliders Station today. It was a lot smaller than I had thought it would be. But that's fine. It looks neat. I haven't been able to use it yet because I don't have any ground meat. I need to get to the store.
I've read several blog's about how crappy this device is and what a complete waste of $20 it is.
This one person said that when she opened her BCSS she smelled it and it had an unpleasant odor. I didn't smell mine but I washed it right away in warm soapy water. The instructions say hot soapy water though. It was hotter than regular warm so that's good enough I guess. But this person also said that she put it on the stove for 15 minutes by itself with no burgers in it to remove all the germs or what not. Well, I read the instructions and it clearly states not to put it on the stove without anything in it. And you have to cook the burgers on medium, not high. It also says not to cook it on a halogen or quartz stove surfaces yet in the commercial they are using the glass stove top.
Another person said that when he was biting into his mini burger he saw some silver on his burger and shouted STOP EATING! because the teflon was attached to the burgers. I'm sorry but you would notice that when you finish cooking them before putting them on the buns.
Another person said that he cooked like 70 or so mini burgers for a party, just batch after batch after batch. When he was done it was pretty nasty and he said he had to use a Brillo pad (or something like it) to clean it. The first rule when cleaning Teflon is no wire cleaning tools that can scratch the Teflon. Everyone knows that.
Well, the cooking time of this thing is 2-4 minutes on medium and I don't think that after the 3rd batch the Teflon is going to start coming off if you are using it right. That's what another person said, after the 3rd batch it started coming off and onto the burgers. That's only 12 minutes of use so if that happens to them after 12 minutes of use then I'm going to guess they are cooking it on high and leaving it on the stove for long periods of time without cooking anything in it.
But, I'm going to take all these comments that I've read into consideration and I'm not going to cook with it. I'm going to use it as a burger press then lay the 5 burgers on a piece of wax paper, put wax paper on top of the burgers, then add 5 more stacked and so on then put it all in a gallon zip lock bag. The one that you suck the air out. This way I can have maybe 30 or so mini burgers frozen and ready to use whenever I get the urge to eat some. And I plan on cooking them with a skillet. I know that Billy Mayes thinks that people who cook their mini burgers on a skillet are all morons who can't cook but I've done pretty good cooking burgers on a skillet my whole life, I think that I'll be ok.
I've read several blog's about how crappy this device is and what a complete waste of $20 it is.
This one person said that when she opened her BCSS she smelled it and it had an unpleasant odor. I didn't smell mine but I washed it right away in warm soapy water. The instructions say hot soapy water though. It was hotter than regular warm so that's good enough I guess. But this person also said that she put it on the stove for 15 minutes by itself with no burgers in it to remove all the germs or what not. Well, I read the instructions and it clearly states not to put it on the stove without anything in it. And you have to cook the burgers on medium, not high. It also says not to cook it on a halogen or quartz stove surfaces yet in the commercial they are using the glass stove top.
Another person said that when he was biting into his mini burger he saw some silver on his burger and shouted STOP EATING! because the teflon was attached to the burgers. I'm sorry but you would notice that when you finish cooking them before putting them on the buns.
Another person said that he cooked like 70 or so mini burgers for a party, just batch after batch after batch. When he was done it was pretty nasty and he said he had to use a Brillo pad (or something like it) to clean it. The first rule when cleaning Teflon is no wire cleaning tools that can scratch the Teflon. Everyone knows that.
Well, the cooking time of this thing is 2-4 minutes on medium and I don't think that after the 3rd batch the Teflon is going to start coming off if you are using it right. That's what another person said, after the 3rd batch it started coming off and onto the burgers. That's only 12 minutes of use so if that happens to them after 12 minutes of use then I'm going to guess they are cooking it on high and leaving it on the stove for long periods of time without cooking anything in it.
But, I'm going to take all these comments that I've read into consideration and I'm not going to cook with it. I'm going to use it as a burger press then lay the 5 burgers on a piece of wax paper, put wax paper on top of the burgers, then add 5 more stacked and so on then put it all in a gallon zip lock bag. The one that you suck the air out. This way I can have maybe 30 or so mini burgers frozen and ready to use whenever I get the urge to eat some. And I plan on cooking them with a skillet. I know that Billy Mayes thinks that people who cook their mini burgers on a skillet are all morons who can't cook but I've done pretty good cooking burgers on a skillet my whole life, I think that I'll be ok.
Bicycle
I woke up at 7am with the alarm clock with the intention of leaving the house at 8:30am or when Chip left for work. But then I realized that I might be getting a package in the mail any day now so I just decided to wait another hour for the mail. It's a good thing I did because she left a big package on my doorstep and didn't even ring the bell. She just left it there. If I wasn't home when she dropped it off then someone could've taken it. It was the Big City Slider Station from Publishers Clearing House lol. Yeah I know, I could've gotten it from Walmart but I can pay for it over the next 4 months. I don't have the money to spend at Walmart right now.
Before the mail came I thought that I would go to Albertson's real fast and see what they have in the way of energy bars. When I get to a certain point my stomach starts hurting because all of a sudden it's like I'm starving or something. I don't know why it does that so I wanted to get some energy bars. They aren't too bad I guess, most of them are a bit expensive like $1.50 - $2. But then I saw the Tiger's Milk bars which were only .89 cents but they also had a tag that said buy 1 get 1 free. So I bought 3 of them and got 3 for free. I'm going to have to go back later and buy 20 more for $10 lol.
So then I went to the bike path and didn't stop for any rest, I was going to just rest at a Yokuts park just before Beach Park but then I figured that Beach Park is right next to Yokuts park so I might as well just keep going to Beach Park. When I got there I sat on the cement bench and grabbed my Tiger's Milk bar and enjoyed it. My stomach was a little tiny bit hungry but it wasn't too hungry but this Tiger's Milk bar filled it. I sat there for probably 15 minutes then I went on my way back the way I came to come home.
When I got home I took the bicycle computer off and when I opened the back door the dog (toy chihuahua) was jumping up for me to pick her up and I did then I started walking in the door and went to reach for the doorknob to close it and the computer fell out of my hand. OMG!!! I picked it up and it was flashing numbers as if I had just taken the battery out and replaced it so it wanted me to set it up. This means that I had lost all my information.
Luckily I had looked at the info before I got home so I kinda knew what my trip odometer was. It was about 10 miles which was the same exact amount of miles I went on April 17th so I just wrote down the same miles. Also I looked at my average speed and it was 12.2 so I wrote that down on my sheet (and in the bike computer stats in the Spark People page). My time was about the same as April 17th also so I just put 52 minutes and no seconds. I don't know how many calories or fat calories that was but I'm not really concerned. The reason I say that is because going 12.2mph burns more calories than going 11.8mph. Not that much but still, the numbers wouldn't be the same.
So that's it. Tomorrow I'm going to leave at the same time as Chip since I'm not expecting anything in the mail. Well, I did buy him some ties for Church with crosses on them but I'm sure they will be in a small enough package that they can slip it into the big box outside.
Before the mail came I thought that I would go to Albertson's real fast and see what they have in the way of energy bars. When I get to a certain point my stomach starts hurting because all of a sudden it's like I'm starving or something. I don't know why it does that so I wanted to get some energy bars. They aren't too bad I guess, most of them are a bit expensive like $1.50 - $2. But then I saw the Tiger's Milk bars which were only .89 cents but they also had a tag that said buy 1 get 1 free. So I bought 3 of them and got 3 for free. I'm going to have to go back later and buy 20 more for $10 lol.
So then I went to the bike path and didn't stop for any rest, I was going to just rest at a Yokuts park just before Beach Park but then I figured that Beach Park is right next to Yokuts park so I might as well just keep going to Beach Park. When I got there I sat on the cement bench and grabbed my Tiger's Milk bar and enjoyed it. My stomach was a little tiny bit hungry but it wasn't too hungry but this Tiger's Milk bar filled it. I sat there for probably 15 minutes then I went on my way back the way I came to come home.
When I got home I took the bicycle computer off and when I opened the back door the dog (toy chihuahua) was jumping up for me to pick her up and I did then I started walking in the door and went to reach for the doorknob to close it and the computer fell out of my hand. OMG!!! I picked it up and it was flashing numbers as if I had just taken the battery out and replaced it so it wanted me to set it up. This means that I had lost all my information.
Luckily I had looked at the info before I got home so I kinda knew what my trip odometer was. It was about 10 miles which was the same exact amount of miles I went on April 17th so I just wrote down the same miles. Also I looked at my average speed and it was 12.2 so I wrote that down on my sheet (and in the bike computer stats in the Spark People page). My time was about the same as April 17th also so I just put 52 minutes and no seconds. I don't know how many calories or fat calories that was but I'm not really concerned. The reason I say that is because going 12.2mph burns more calories than going 11.8mph. Not that much but still, the numbers wouldn't be the same.
So that's it. Tomorrow I'm going to leave at the same time as Chip since I'm not expecting anything in the mail. Well, I did buy him some ties for Church with crosses on them but I'm sure they will be in a small enough package that they can slip it into the big box outside.
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