Being Amber Rhea

This amuses me for several reasons…

Why is the cartoon of a dude? :P Boo.

Here’s the extended results description from the site itself:

You’re not in this for the money, for you blogging is all about the passion! Sure you might make a little pocket change now and again, but you know that it’s the content, the audience and the people that are what makes blogging great!

You’ve been blogging since Nick Denton was in diapers. When it comes to blogging experience, you are the authority on blogging. Heck you probably even have a blog where you give advice about blogging!

You love web 2.0 stuff like Digg and Delicious and you’re involved in more blogging groups, networks and activities than anyone else you know. With all your connections, you make Neil Patel look positively anti-social!

FWIW, I think Digg pretty much sucks. I obviously heart del.icio.us, though. And whoTF is Neil Patel?

In happy news, my new pole (and stage and other assorted parts) arrived last night and it’s almost completely assembled! We’ll be making a trip to Home Depot after work for sandbags, which were supposed to come with all the other stuff, but which Platinum Stages naturally forgot to enclose. This new setup is a hell of a lot more sturdy than that sketchy “semi-removable” whozit. Only downside is the pole isn’t very tall, so climbing will be very unimpressive, and going upside down might not happen. We shall see! In any event, I’m excited to finally have it! And this means I can actually get some practice in before Sunday’s student showcase (!!!!!).

Just a quick semi-update: on Monday, I spoke with the CEO of Platinum Stages. It looks like they are possibly going to make things [somewhat] right, in the form of replacing my jacked-up pole with one of their 4′x4′ stages with built-in pole. I have to return the pole and parts, and once they’ve received all that stuff, they’ll send the new item. One downside is I have to pay shipping for the return.

I’m taking the day off work on the 28th anyway, so I figure I can arrange for FedEx to come pick up the packages that day. So I won’t have my new pole until early October - but at least things are moving in the right direction. I’ll blog about all of it in more detail once I’ve got the new pole.

I finally wrote a letter to Platinum Stages and am mailing it today. I figured I’d post it here, too. So here it is. (Keith Scheinberg is the CEO.) It’s long and potentially boring so I’m placing it below the cut, as they say on LiveJournal.
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Jenny observed today that it seems like I haven’t been blogging as much, and asked if something was going on. The short answer is, yes, something is going on. (That makes it sound like somebody’s in the hospital, or in jail, or breaking up, or something like that - none of those are the case.) Even though my bloggin’ fingers are itching to write about all of it, I know the prudent* thing to do is to wait.

However, I will say that we’re moving back to Decatur tomorrow. We’ll be living camp-out style for about a week, and then some actual movers are coming on the 22nd to bring over all the furniture and heavy boxes. We’re supposed to have internet access as of Monday; keep your fingers crossed that Comcast doesn’t screw it up.

So, yes, blogging has been and will be light. I’ve also been busy with Sex, Wine and Chocolate planning, Sex 2.0 planning, getting back at Platinum Stages for sucking, and my actual 9-to-5 job. But I kind of hate “blogging will be light” posts and “OMG I’m so busy” posts, so I’ll leave it at that.

In the meantime, there’s a new episode of Mostly ITP. Also, Ren breaks down solutions for dealing with prostitution that actually make sense. To me this seems like common sense and it boggles my mind (and irritates the hell out of me) when people don’t get it. Here’s part of what I said over there:

I didn’t mean the issue was simple as in, “Oh, just flip a switch, and that’s that.” I meant it should be a pretty basic concept that, hello, regardless of one’s job, they should be treated as a human being. And, too, that even if one has a longterm goal of abolishing something, or creating some sweeping revolution, or completely overthrowing the power structure, or whatever… well, the reality is, that goal may be admirable, but it’s not going to happen tomorrow, and grandiose plans are not going to do any good to the people who are affected TODAY.

* I can’t use that word without thinking of Dana Carvey’s impressions of George Bush on SNL in the early 90s.

I ordered a pole from Platinum Stages because that is where the poles at the new studio came from. Previously, I had planned to order from Markstaar, because that’s where the poles at the old studio had come from; but I decided to go with Platinum Stages because I liked the ones at the new studio, and I knew they could provide very tall (over 12 feet) brass poles. I also thought it was a good thing that they focus specifically on dance poles (rather than generic brass tubing, like Markstaar).

As it turns out, Platinum Stages has terrible customer service and obviously does not care about “the little guy.” They might be good for a studio that’s ordering lots of stuff, but for an individual? All I can say is STAY AWAY.
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This weekend, I’m going on a retreat with Georgians for Choice. We’ll be staying in somebody’s cabin near Ellijay, and there won’t be internet access or a cell phone signal. Am I allowed to use the phrase “off the grid” to describe what my weekend will look like? (Probably not, because there’s a landline and electricity at the cabin.) I’m not sure what we’re going to do at the retreat other than eat and sit around; but that’s okay, because eating and sitting around sounds like a damn fine weekend to me.

On one hand, I’m looking forward to the retreat, but on the other hand, I’ll be missing Rusty and looking forward to getting back to Atlanta (civilization) on Sunday afternoon.

Oh, for those of you who don’t pay attention to my Twitter updates, our AC is fixed now. Last night we slept at our apartment for the first time in 11 days. There are other updates regarding this situation, but I’ll post them later.

And now that we can actually stay at our apartment again, I will post about the pole saga soon, too. Executive summary: Platinum Stages is a shady company that has fucking awful customer service. Don’t buy anything from them.

Sad:

Sad:

Happy: (also my current desktop wallpaper at work)