Stream Energy’s automated billing system is a pain in the ass. For various reasons, including price, I switched away from Stream when my contract was up. I scheduled the move for the exact day the contract was finished. So, of course, their automated system fines me $250 because someone used a <= rather than a < somewhere.

I tried calling them when I discovered it, but the hold time was 45 minutes. I tried another day and it was 25. Now I’m trying again and it’s been 33 minutes out of a guestimated “38 minute” wait from the start of the call.

The hold music is Sting’s “Brand New Day” on repeat. Not the album, the song. Just the one song. It’s a shame, I used to like this song.

The fun part is that the hold message keeps saying that there’s an option to have the system call me back when my place in the queue is ready, but it never actually offers this service. The one time it did, the very first time I called, it called me back on time and then dropped the call on me. I suppose it’s for the best that it didn’t offer it.

Well, 40 minutes in I get to talk to someone and try to explain the situation and she’s a little flummoxed and puts me on hold to review everything. She came back and verified that it was a mistake and put in to have the fee removed. I still have to follow up to make sure that it happens, though. Bleck.

Seriously, why have systems that automatically charge you like this and not audit them in some fashion to avoid mistakes like this? This is a pretty simple one.

Though, Direct Energy isn’t much better. They told me the first bill was going to be two months’ worth of charges and that I could pre-pay a standard month on the website to prepare for the first bill, so I logged in and put some money towards it. Now I have a $100 credit on the account … and the actual bill has posted.

We managed to record his heartbeat last night. He’s due in the next week or two, so now’s the last chance to harass him in there.

MP4 file

The wife and I were coming back from a movie two nights ago, the same day I bought my new-to-me camera, and on the overly-hilly road that gets us into the neighborhood we saw a Harvest Moon on the horizon. Well, what else am I going to do with a new camera, eh?

So I got the tripod out when we got home and went out front only to be saddened that no place on the street would let me see the moon because of the houses and the trees. No matter, I thought, we’re on one of those hills and surely I can go to the downslope of the hill and catch it. So I got into my car and drove (because I’m lazy) to the end of the street and then down the main street a bit until I came to the downslope.

I parked on a side street and went to the corner, camera on the tripod already, and started to setup when I noticed a patrol car whiz by on the opposite side of the street. My very first response in my head was “Oh crap, he’s going to bug the crap out of me, isn’t he?” He kept going for a bit and then turned around and whizzed by me again, this time heading to my right. Then his lights (all of his lights) turned off and he parked on the side of the street, maybe 50 ft.

The wife and I went to see the first showing of Iron Man at the Cedar Park Cinemark last night (at 12:01a no less). The midnight showing is an old trick to be the first to show the movie, and it’s usually a theater full of losers that can’t wait another day to see it.

So, of course I show up.

Aside from initial difficulties with the nature of having losers in the audience (“I’m drunk! Woo!” “I’m stoned! Yeeeeah!”), everyone settled down for the show, which was good because this is easily the best comic conversion since Superman Returns and Batman Begins. The previews hinted that it would be good, but the general fear with good previews is that all the good bits were used to make the previews. That was decidedly not the case here.

If you’re waiting for Ozzy’s iconic musical appearance, it is, sadly, at the very freaking end as the credits roll. Of course, when you get there, you’ll see that the only better spot for it was when the final version of the suit was finished, and that would have been a little too “expected” to be anything but campy.