I failed to do hit all but one of my intended goals for 2019. That’s pretty depressing. Ultimately, I lacked the discipline.
2020 goals to come.
2019 In Review
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Monthly Archives: December 2019
Last day of 2019…
To everyone: Happy New Year! 新年快樂! あけましておめでとう! 🎉
Meowy Christmas!
I love this picture~
Vashon Coffee Company
December’s Angels Cup comes from Vashon Coffee Company. The beans are from Ethiopia from a Benti Nenqa. I am not familiar with the name of this region but I know that I’ve had beans from Sidamo, Yirgachefe and Guji regions. Researching where this Hambela Estate on Google shows that it’s seems to be in the southern regions of Guji.
Floral and berry aromas greet me as I open the bag. Making my latte, I taste berries and nuts. There’s a sweet chocolate after taste that lingers at the back of my tongue with every sip. These Ethiopian beans have a pretty distinctive taste.
“Cha” or “Tay”?
This link blows my mind. It never occurred to me that two different words for “tea” originated based on how it was exported.
Suits
I have to say… Wearing a suit really makes a difference. But only on relatively normal figured guys (aka no belly, no fat butt).
=/
OMG… the Customer Service…
Since it’s the end of the year, there are quite a few online sales that go on. In addition, my credit card also have deals if I spend $X at a particular location, I get $Y back. In this case, I had to spend $150 to get $30 back. That is an effective cash rebate of 20%. And so it happens, I needed some shoes and a fairly popular shoe brand had a sale. I ended up ordering two pairs of shoes to be able to satisfy the spending requirements. Each pair was shipped separately but to the same location (a UPS store).
A few days go by and I get a notification that both shoes have been delivered. However, it turns out, only 1 of the shoe was delivered. The remaining shoe was still in transit. I waited two more days and it became apparent that 2nd pair would not be arriving. I started to investigate the whereabouts of this 2nd pair by calling UPS. This is where the fun begins…
UPS customer service rep (CSR) tells me that the package was apparently delivered to the wrong address. Furthermore, the CSR says to start initiating a claim through the UPS.com website. Ok fair enough. I go to the CSR Portal and input the tracking number. And I get an error saying that the tracking number cannot be used to file a claim. WTF!? So I called UPS back again and they kept transferring me for no real good reason as I was trying to explain the situation. Eventually, I got to a person who investigated and said that the shoe brand placed a restriction on the tracking number to prevent customers from making any sort of claim. My only recourse was to contact the shoe brand and not UPS. Seriously? (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
And so I called the shoe brand. After explaining the first part of my situation, the customer service rep responded with some sass responding with “why doesn’t the UPS just go back and pick up the package?” and “just log into UPS.com and go file a claim and get me that claim#.” But after hearing that there’s some sort of hold preventing me from filing a claim, the rep’s sass disappeared and put me on hold. I guess after consultation with while on hold, I received a fraud#. The rep opened a fraud claim to have the fraud department investigate.
Ya I don’t know… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
New Car
I’ve been driving my old car for over 10 years now. During the last oil maintenance, the mechanic I go to said that any future repairs I needed might not be worth the cost. Reading on the type of repair needed (new catalytic converter), this repair costs at least $3000 in parts which is more than the current value of the car (~$2500). He strongly suggested I consider replacing the car. The car still drives pretty well. It retains its V6 power and acceleration and it’s engine is still in fairly good shape.
Looking for a new car, I realized that the advances in car “comforts” is pretty amazing. You now have standard navigation package, bluetooth connectivity, rearview cameras, parking/proximity sensors, lane assists and even braking sensor and assists! In all fairness, the standard navigation is now being replaced with Apple CarPlay/Android Auto. Going into the new car search, I knew what kind of options I absolutely wanted. Unfortunately, many of the cars required additional packages to the base trim in order to have some of these options.
Anyways, I settled on an Acura. I was offered a really good deal that was too good to pass up. I enjoy driving it so far. The acceleration and power is more responsive than my old car. I’m still getting used to that rearview camera as well. With all the options, I’m still learning about all the various sensor beeps and warning beeps. The lane assists is pretty amazing and works well on straight road driving but not so much on curved roads. I’ve since hit the 100 mile and 500 mile mark already.
One thing I do have to say is that it is a bit frustrating learning about all the different new electronics in the car. The bluetooth connectivity was a little annoying as I expected a lot more. But in retrospect, I think my expectations were a bit to lofty and unfounded. The USB audio option however is still annoying and I’m still working on understanding what’s going on. It apparently cannot play certain songs on a playlist BUT it’s able to play the song if I search for it manually. I think I may end up having to just have a few folders that contain all the songs I want to listen via USB audio. Fortunately, I’m OK with repeating a favorite song over and over again.
Safe Driving!
A Guy and His Thoughts... 