ScottSevener.com

• Sometimes good customer service is only a smile and a polite word away.Today I called Sprint to see about finally changing up my cellular plan because A) I was way overdue anyways and B) I managed to exchange about 80 text messages with a special someone over the course of about seven hours yesterday alone…and my old plan only allotted for 100 over the entire month! Luckily I got a very friendly rep on the phone who hooked me up nicely – not only did she drop my Vision charges down to $5 / month from $15 after I mentioned that I might just drop the service because I really only use it for messaging anyways, but after learning that I was also willing to renew my contract with them for another two years, she gave me a new plan that bundled roaming and my nights & weekends so I’d be saving another ten bucks there, too! After adding on an extra eight for some more text messages, I’m still coming out twelve bucks cheaper than before; nights and weekends now start at a staggering 6pm, and Scott is once again a happy Sprint PCS customer.

• Replacement parts for my elliptical are fucking impossible to find.Earlier this week I had to cut one of my exercise routines short because the handle bars on my elliptical started slipping. As it turns out, one of the spring washers that keeps them tight broke – three months after buying the thing – and now until I get a replacement, said torture device is pretty much useless. I tried using a regular washer that I picked up from Lowe’s yesterday and that worked for a while, but tonight it started slipping about 15 minutes in and I can’t see anything else that can be done other than just order the replacement parts. Sure, they’ll probably send them for free because it must have a warranty of some kind, but that’s still a good week minimum without it and I shouldn’t go that long without exercising. I might even be forced to do the unthinkable – go outside.

• It might be nearing time to buy me a new laptop.In typing this post, I just learned that neither my down arrow, nor the delete key seem to be working anymore…and I think there’s at least one other one that’s being goofy as well, but I can’t remember which one at the present time. Coupled with the classy, red line exactly one pixel wide that runs down the left side of my display, I’m thinking that five years might be just about all that this little Dell has in her. Lord knows how much food and drink I’ve spilled in her over the years and let’s face it, these things just don’t last forever anymore. Great – another prize for my bonus to fight over come April…

• Enthusiasm is a dish best served…period.Despite my energetic post about getting my writing kick-started again last week, I honestly haven’t written a damn thing since … at least not as far as columns are concerned. Even tonight, sure I could’ve probably finished a column or two, but instead here I am blogging – go figure! I still don’t know what my problem is – motivation, a lack of organization, or perhaps simply too much stuff on my plate – but it’s not like I didn’t get anything done this week. The calendar is now officially done and up for sale, last night and again this evening I made some progress with the graphical frontend for the new Just Laugh, and I’ve even spent a good deal of time talking to a new girl that I’ve recently met and am growing rather fond of (more about that in a minute…). I think I just need to sit down and do it – it sounds simple enough, but look where it’s gotten me so far lately! Maybe I’ll pack up old Sticky Keys here and see if I can fit in a few paragraphs here and there on my trip down south this weekend.

  That’s right – what better way to spend quality time with family than to bring along the old compruder…

• It’s all about COMMUNICATION.You know that girl that I mentioned a few minutes ago? Well, I certainly don’t want to jinx anything by letting loose here too soon (also, I’m not sure if she’s managed to stumble onto this page of mine yet or not), but I will say this – despite what anybody wants to say about playing games and not tipping your hand and keeping your cool, the best practice – in my opinion – is to simply talk to each other where romantic intent is concerned…as much as humanly possible, really. Maybe such “strategies” work well for other people, but I’ve always been a sucker for honesty and trustworthiness anyways, so it just seems to me that when one is trying to build a new foundation with somebody, it would make sense to start off strong from the ground up. I can probably count on one hand the number of people who I can honestly say that I’ve had truly open lines of communication with over the years and it really shows in the friendships that I have with those people. Plus, we actually know what each other likes and doesn’t like instead of guessing, which is a plus!

  I think at the end of the day, it’s a whole lot easier to just say what you mean without sugar-coating things – the trick is to find someone who you can actually say those things to. No bets just yet, but I’ve got a good hunch about this one. More news as the story breaks… 😉

AND LASTLY…

• I don’t think that I’m giving my fish the attention that they deserve.

I was going to be done, but I just glanced over and noticed a distinct lack of fish in my fishtank this evening. There’s currently only three left, plus the plecostamus, and that can’t be a good thing. This is going to sound mean, but I was kind of ready for some new fish anyways – most of these guys were kind of traumatized from the move last year anyways. I’ll have to make a trip over to the good PetCo next week one night after work to see what they’ve got to offer. Hopefully they’ll have something big – those are always more fun that the little ones to me anyways…