The World of Scott Mindeaux

AT&T Visual Voicemail Sucks!

So for the last two months I thought it was interesting that I haven’t had any voicemails. But, it actually was there, but wasn’t showing up in Visual Voicemail. I have never manually entered my voicemail box other than thru my iPhone.

So…I kept getting messages via sms or email that my voicemail box is full. So I would hit the voicemail button on my iPhone and it is empty. No messages, right?

WRONG!

So technical support at AT&T had no clue how to help me. They kept trying to reset my voicemail box, but couldn’t. Ugh.

So I decided to call myself and hit *. OMG, there were like 40 voicemails in there since October.  What the hell?!?

Disappearing Act

So…over the last couple of months, I have had the pleasure of meeting some nice guys online. We chat, we take the time to talk, mostly over several days or even a week or two. We talk about food, life, computers, favorite places to eat, things we don’t like to eat, our favorite tv shows and the movies we could do without – good conversation.

Then it stops. No emails, no text messages, nothing.

This has happened to me by four different guys in the couple of months. What’s going on here? Am I doing something? Am I offending them? Was it my wanting to take things slow and not rush into something? I’m a bit at a loss and wondering what I’m doing to have several guys do this. I tried not to rush things and rush to go out on a date after just one conversation. My previous experience is that if I rushed into it, there would be expectations and so forth.

So….if one of the four of you who I have had a good time getting to know would be willing to write back or even call, I’d be happy to pick up where we left off – or if you want to break ties, at least tell me why.

Storytellers I have Come To Know, Dismissed at KNX 1070

Some of you are probably wondering why I’m even talking about this. For the last 4 years I have gotten to know the news crew pretty closely at AM KNX 1070 Newsradio. They are my source of news, weather and traffic updates  every morning and mostly when I’m in the car. KNX is also host to one of my cooking shows with Melinda Lee on the weekends.

Today, KNX gave pink slips to some names I have come to know: anchor Larry Van Nuys, news reporters Todd Leitz, Vytas Safronikas, Karen Zarzadiaz, and sports reporters Joe Cala and Chris Madsen.

With names like Safronikas and Zarzadiaz, how can you forget those? These were seasoned reporters and I will miss them.

This comes on the heels of sister station KFWB 980 turning into talk radio format with hosts like Dr. Laura as one of their premier radio hosts(Oh yes…I’ll for sure be tuning in…). Don’t you luv sarcasm?

The newsdesk anchors and some reporters are making the move to KNX from KFWB. Guess they had to make room for them. How tacky to have a party in the studio next door while you hack away at staff that has been at KNX for years to be replaced by KFWB personnel.

KNX and KFWB are owned by CBS and had no comment on today’s events.

On Chicago, Innuendos and The Cold

My trip to Chicago so far has been pretty good as far as my “business” trip has been concerned. I have been having a blast at the International Home and Housewares Show. But as far as meeting people in my old hometown, it has been a bust. There is one person whom I have been following on the net for quite sometime now. I don’t think I have ever hinted at anything more than just wanting to get to know him, but maybe my approach was wrong. I know I never hinted at anything of a sexual nature. Here is one thing I think many don’t know:

I very much dislike having conversations over email or instant messenger. I would much rather have a phone conversation or or meet in person. Emails and IMs are so cold. I can’t hear inflections, I can’t hear sarcasm – I can’t hear a smile. No amount of symbols on a screen cane make up for the real emotion in a voice.

My communications with this person has been via email and IMs and has never moved forward beyond that. In fact I carried a 13 piece email conversation with him no less than 36 hours ago. Very frustrating. I really wanted to meet some people in this city to get to know and maybe even find someone who would be willing to show me around town from their eyes and not the eyes of a tourist. I wanted to get to know them and how they lived in this great city. Yeah, sex can be fun, it always is, but I would have been very happy with some witty banter, some wine and a couple of good laughs. No such luck.

I mentioned to this person that guys here in Chicago seem disinterested, but in reality it’s no different than back home in California. People don’t want to talk on those social sites. They rack up points in their heads as to how many friends they can list on their page and to see how many compliments they can get from others.  Does this person here in Chicago think I’m such a schmuck that I can’t even meet to say hello? Maybe it’s my fault for not being right out there and asking him out. But I couldn’t. I was too insecure in myself that I would rather not ask, than be rejected.

Shame on me.

So for me, on this trip to the city I was born in, this definitely is the windy city. When you try to get to know someone, you seem to feel like you’re being blown off. I’ve always thought of myself as a caring, sensitive person that always put other people ahead of myself. Now I find myself questioning whether I am who I think I am or if I”m some ass coming across as wanting and terse.

Procrastination vs. Hesitation in Getting to Chicago

So something quite nice happened in the last couple of days. Without getting into the nitty gritty, I have a unique opportunity to attend an event in Chicago. The event itself starts on Sunday and ends on Tuesday. I have been hitting the websites looking for a good deal on airfare.

So for the last few days I have found some good ones, but I would get distracted or busy and when I would go back to it, it would be GONE. I have seen seats disappear right in front of my eyes. It’s totally crazy. When I started this search airfare prices were around $286, now they are up to $380.

But there is something in my head that keeps saying, if you hold back maybe something will come up. One such thing did happen. A previous review shows that one particular flight went down in price. I got busy and literally 3 minutes later the site said that fare wasn’t available and that it is now a new, higher price.

Do you think websites really have those low fares or is it a ploy to get you to click on it just to find out it is gone.

At this point if I don’t do something my flight to ORD will cost $400+. I need to fly out on Friday (3/20) or Saturday(3/21) and return no earlier than Tuesday(3/24) or Wednesday(3/25).

Does someone want to help me get to Chicago?!? Help!

SMS Texting Overages

Ok…so when I switched to AT&T I decided I wasn’t going to do SMS texting anymore. Well that didn’t work so I bought a 200 SMS package. I figure most people I talk to will email me or call me.

Little did I know that I would go over my SMS plan by like 288 messages!! That’s right I went over 288 messages meaning I had 488 in/out txt messages last month. At $.10 a msg that comes out to $28.00 in additional charges as a result.

So do I break down and get the unlimited plan pushing my monthly bill to over $100 a month??

Geeez…