Karmic Konsumer

I wake up in the morning, do my morning routine and leave for work. At the end of my block, my phone tells me that it’s turning on bluetooth and gps for me. And it does.

I get within a half mile of work in the morning and my phone tells me to have a great day and that it’s turning down the ringer and turning off gps. But if I go to the office off-hours, it doesn’t bother because there is no one else there that the ringer could bother. I like it that way.

If I go to court, my phone tells me it’s going into silent mode, and it does.

When I open maps or navigation, my gps turns on and when I close them, my gps turns off. GPS is a battery hog so that works out well.

When I come home, my phone tells me that it’s turning all…

I wrote before about using paypal and usps in conjunction with selling on etsy. However, I also use paypal for my day to day business transactions too, which are mostly services. Today, I needed to run reports on paypal for a profit and loss statement and I had the information I needed so quickly and painlessly that I felt the need to sing paypal’s praises once again.

I run a small, service oriented business. I teach classes, offer alternative healing services and write. Small businesses take lots of effort and a small business owner wears lots of hats, including accountant. I’m not an accountant. So, in an effort to achieve effortless financial management, I’ve been through three banks, Wamu, Chase and Navy Federal, all which failed miserably and I used two banks with a former business, neither of which were all that great either. And through it all, paypal stood quietly by functioning effortlessly,…

I found Daniel Charlton at Del Mar View Dental Care after a bad experience with another dentist. I recently told them they were priceless - and I meant it.

When you walk in, you are greeted by an immediate sense of quality. The greeting staff is always warm, friendly, polite and accommodating and you are surrounded by an environment that was obviously carefully designed to be peaceful and serene. There is internet access, a plethora of magazines and coffee while you wait - which is never long. This dentist is on time.

I think that the cleaning area is actually called the ‘cleaning spa’ or something similar and it most certainly does have a spa feel to it. Although the equipment is state of the art, clean and sterile, there is nothing sterile feeling about the experience. The dental hygienists are knowledgeable, caring and gentle. You can even watch a dvd while…

In the past, I have written about a few really bad personal dental experiences (here and here). In all of these experiences, I noticed a differing level of service for people with and without private insurance - and even between dentists that accept public plans and dentists that do not.

Having been on medicaid as a kid, I remember how horrible the care was. I had teeth pulled when I should have had a more complex and more expensive but medically necessary palate widening procedure, that I still need now. When TMJ flared and the need was worsened, it was shoo shooed. When my son, on Medi-cal, needed care for an injury, I thought it would be better in California, a place where I’ve experienced such a higher level of care than elsewhere but it wasn’t. Having been on private insurance for quite some time and then moving my son to a…

Last week, my nine year old son broke his two front teeth in a skateboarding accident. We took him to the ER to make sure nothing else was broken or damaged. We were instructed to follow up with a dentist the next morning.

He was taken off of his step father’s insurance in January so I put him on Medi-Cal. That, however, meant that his old dentist, who I love, (not PERSONALLY love.. just.. professionally love.) (As a client.) (not like a client who is also a stalker. Just a client.) (Not even one who remotely loves her dentist affectionately.) (But his work? I would marry it.) wouldn’t be covered under Denti-Cal so I had to find him a new one.

The following are my own personal first hand experiences with these dentists. Your mileage may vary.

Roland M Buyama, a pedontist in Oceanside, CA

That night, I spent hours scouring the dental…

Most long time readers will know that my 9 year old some has some issues with impulse control and behavior in school and socially. This is, in large part, due to his Asperger’s Syndrome and in small (but not inconsequentially) part due to a very highly intelligent mind and strong will.

He is consistently disciplined and rewarded at home and I’m very involved in his world but it’s just not sinking in. And where his disability is concerned, only seen and experienced consequences help. Where zero tolerance and potentially legally dangerous acts are concerned, waiting for legal consequences is not an option I want to explore. So I decided to take him to the San Diego Juvenile Hall Open House.

It was absolutely fabulous. There were booths set up outside, first of all, so while you’re waiting in line to go on the tour, you’re passing educational booths about the facilities…

I was stumbling about my new best friend, hulu.com when I ran across Kings, a new television series on NBC. I’d seen the previews and thought I might like to catch it sometime but hulu stuck it under my nose and so I watched and I am enamored.

It takes place in a fictitious world. It’s not clear yet what the history of this world is other than it has taken 20 years for a brand new sparkling city, Shiloh, to be built to house the King and his royal family as the capital of Gilboa. It is this royal family and the government upon which the series is focused.

In the first episode, a contemporary David and Goliath encounter places a country boy at the top of the government food chain. He has eyes for the princess and a knack for doing the right thing. The quintessential well meaning, wholesome hero…

I must say that after relating the experience to several Feri family members and hearing that it was uncharacteristic, I was a bit confused about the whole thing and didn’t post the entry that was written almost two years ago.

However, I finally posted my experience with luckymojo.com, the hoodoo store, after receiving an email that my student status was going to become ‘inactive’, well over a year after the fact.

Although I did have a negative experience with luckymojo.com, I am glad to have a positive update. The emails that I received over the past few days from Cat’s (the owner) partner, as a result of the ‘phantom’ student status, have been nothing but kind and accommodating and have made the experience much more pleasant.

Turns out, after emailing back and forth with Cat’s partner, who takes an active role in the business, that the experience that I had doesn’t…

I had a peculiar, bizzare and otherwise absurd experience with luckymojo.com. luckymojo.com is a website based upon an in person shop which specializes in hoodoo related merchandise. They sell powders, candles etc and the site has a wealth of hoodoo information on it.

However, although the information on hoodoo on the site is great, the shop really isn’t that great, it turns out. The following is my personal experience. Take it or leave it. Your mileage may vary.

When I was doing resale, I decided to place a wholesale order for them because I wanted their stuff in the shop. The entire ordering experience was a nightmare. Even worse was the particularly unpleasant demeanor of the employee, Ernie and the owner, Cat.

None of the order process is automated. I had to email to get a copy of the wholesale catalog, which is a text list. You read the text list and…

Part one was about kittens. On to the ferrets.

I can handle the daily meds for adrenal disease. What I can’t handle is the constant cleaning. Ryan never did stay on top of them so they stunk. Keeping them so that they DONT stink is an every day affair. So I was determined to find the right stuff to do the job better. Also, they have a playpen but it’s a real pain in the ass to pull out so I thought some in-between-playpen-time toys for their cage were in order.

I changed litters. I was using corn cob litter because that’s what was recommended by the people we rescued them from and therefore, that’s what Ryan was using. I changed to Marshall Ferret Litter. What a difference! This litter does a MUCH better job of controlling odor and it doesnt get all stick to the litter box in a goopy…