good-bye Mailblocks!

This purple guy was walking around yesterday when
Craig and I were having coffee recovering from Real Life.


I recently grew suspicious that some e-mails weren't getting through to my Mailblocks.com account, so sent myself test e-mails from various other addresses. Not only did none get through, but I also never got a bounce or error message indicating anything was amiss. Upon sending a query to their customer service, I received the following response:

---

Hello there,

Thank you for your questions regarding SR-my mailblocks address does not seem to be receiving mail.

We have identified the issue and are in the process of adding additional new email servers. This should help resolve the issue you are experiencing .These issues will be resolved soon, so please try logging in again in a little while. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

We appreciate your patience and understanding during this temporary issue.

Thank you for using Mailblocks. If we can be of further assistance, please let us know.

---

I did log on the next day and find some e-mail, but had no idea if any was missing.

The main problem with the message from Mailblocks is that they didn't get to the heart of my main concern: How long had I NOT been receiving e-mail? What does "these issues will be solved soon" mean, exactly? What happened to the missing e-mail? Will I ever receive it? And most importantly, why did the company not tell me what was going on until I asked? Would they have let me know what happened, that I might have lost e-mail? Or would they have just said nothing, hoping I wouldn't notice?

I wrote again to ask these questions as well as to express my concern about the lack of communication and information. I also told them that I was not planning on renewing my account.

Their response:

---

"Hello Debbie,
Thank you for your questions regarding Re: SR-my Mailblocks address does not seem to be receiving mail [#38871]. We appreciate your feedback and suggestions. I've taken note and will pass your feedback on to our product engineering team.

Thank you for using Mailblocks. If we can be of further assistance, please let us know."

---

That was several days ago; haven't heard from them since.

Good customer service doesn't mean you have to be perfect, but it does mean good communication.

Mailblocks.com has recently been undergoing some problems, possibly as a result of their acquisition by AOL, but I would have thought that this would make it all that more important to keep their customers up-to-date with what was going on. If I were them, I would have given more detailed information right away, promise they would do what they could to not let it happen again, perhaps even offer a discount on my next renewal fee. Anything would have been more helpful than "Thanks, I'll pass on the message."

Who knows how many other customers have lost e-mail and don't know?

I've decided to switch to Gmail for my public e-mail. So far it seems to be doing a great job filtering spam, and I don't give out my personal address anymore. And it's FREE.

And good-bye Mailblocks.com!

September 2004 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments

Toronto starwatching

Mark Wahlberg, outside our building yesterday.


Today's pics are from the Toronto Film Festival and outside the CityTV Schmooze party. I meant to only stay just long enough to catch a glimpse of Dustin Hoffman, but admit I got hooked into the whole star-watching thing, especially since I ended up standing with no one in front of me, right in front of the entrance to the Schmooze party. I don't think I could have gotten out even if I had wanted to; people were packed in around me.




I didn't recognize a ton of celebrities, of course. Like this woman, who signed the autograph book of the person next to me:





Since she was standing so close, I figured I had to take a photo of her. It was only later I found out she's Trish Status, apparently well-known to wrestling fans:




And I did see Dustin Hoffman, yay:







The Schmoozething later that evening was interesting, mainly because what was happening on the giant television screens (and being televised) often had very little to do with reality. They kept showing clips of famous actors getting out of cars and such, for example, but we in the crowd had already seen this clips in the warm-up and KNEW they weren't there. Hm.

I also found it interesting because of the reactions of the actors themselves, and of the crowd. I love people-watching, and this was great for that. I was standing beside an obviously experienced fan, who told her companion, "Remember, you've got to YELL LOUD, or they won't come over."

And she was right! As the actors and other celebrities walked down the red carpet, they watched the crowd, looking for fans who knew who they were. Most were pretty willing to come over and sign autographs, shake hands. If I had a pad of paper with me, I could have gotten a bunch of autographs, darnitall.




Anyway, it was fun, and I also dropped by the Taste of the Entertainment District (more on that in a future Blathering). Here are just a few of the photos I took yesterday...

Atom Egoyan:







The cast of Saint Ralph, one of the films premiering at the Festival. To you Canadians: that's Gordon Pinsent on the right:





Neve Campbell on the left:





And here are two people who look very familiar but I couldn't place their names. Can anyone out there identify them?




Sonja Smits (thanks, Kristen!)

September 2004 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments

insta-sushi

Mabuta is a 16-year-old student from Japan living with my dad these days, and on the weekend he made dinner, a sort of "make-your-own" norimaki sushi.

Mabuta's sushi method differs from the way my mother made it in that guests are expected to assemble their own sushi rolls into handrolls. He also opted for more convenient ready-made ingredients, cutting down on prep time.



Mabuta.


And it was GOOD, yum. Very messy since some of us (okay, ME) tended to try cramming much more into our rolls than could reasonably fit, but lots of fun!



Egg, which will be cut into strips.


Fillings included: cucumber, artificial crab, egg, avocado, mayo (I don't like mayo in my sushi so left this out), smoked salmon. My mom used to use shiitake mushrooms (involved soaking in a shoyu mixture), pink fish powder stuff (can't remember the name but would recognize the package), eel, gourd strips (also involved soaking), some other stuff. I know how to make it but it takes a lot of time. I like dipping my norimaki in a mixture of shoyu and wasabi.

Ok, I'm hungry.



Sushi rice cooling in trays just before dinner.


Now that my tendinitis has improved enough for me to do some chopping, I'm starting to cook fun things again. Right now I'm trying out recipes in my copy of Hiroko Shimbo's The Japanese Kitchen, a gift from Parki a while back.

I made Tori to Kashunattsu no miso Itame last night (chicken, cashews and miso in a wok) with brown rice and was pretty happy with the results. Had the leftovers for lunch today. Tonight I'm doing a much simpler Buto no Shogayaki (ginger-flavored pan-fried pork, miso soup and rice).

I love walking to St. Lawrence Market in the late afternoon to buy fresh ingredients and cook with them right away. Today I brought home a huge bunch of basil as well. I don't NEED basil, but it only cost $2 and I love the smell! So I put the bunch in a flower vase and set it in the living room. Jeff's going to think I'm nuts when he comes home, I'm sure. :-)

August 2004 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments

toy trains and natto

Natto, the most foul-smelling food I've
ever voluntarily eaten.


Jeff and I visited with my father and Mabuta earlier this week. Can't recall if I've mentioned Mabuta before; he's a remarkably easygoing and polite teenager from Japan now living with my dad. While Jeff set up Dad's new computer, I snooped through the basement where my father stored stuff from when my siblings and I were growing up in the house. A lot of junk, of course, but nearly each item brought back a wave of childhood memories; I can understand why Dad hasn't been able to bring himself to throw some of this out.

Like this beat-up toy train, which I clearly remember playing with when we were kids:






And an old lacrosse stick of my brother's:






I spent several hours going through old photo albums, letters, cards, drawings, LPs, toys, stuff that used to belong to my mother. Cried some. Laughed some. From time to time, Jeff would call down to see if I was okay.

Also found an old FilKONtario membership badge (I have no idea why it was in my dad's basement):



From the *first* FilKONtario (thanks to Judith for the confirmation).


Mabuta made a yummy Japanese dish, some kind of chicken and vegetable sauce over rice. And then I tried natto, a foul-smelling sticky web of fermented soybeans, for the first time in my life. "Foul-smelling" is not an exaggeration. The smell actually made me nauseous and I came very close to not trying this infamous Japanese dish at all. The natto at my dad's place was prepackaged in styrofoam, apparently shipped in frozen state from Tokyo.



An old computer games data tape I found in
the basement of my father's house. For our Model III TRS-80.


But then I figured, what the heck? I've always been curious about this dish so figured I should at least try it once.

So while my father and Mabuta watched with amusement (I did not hide the fact that I detested the smell and appearance), I opened the tiny packets of hot mustard and shoyu that came in the box, mixed them into the soy bean goop. It also looked revolting, with sudsy sticky tendrils that don't let go even after you put some natto in your mouth but would instead stubbornly stretch between your mouth and your chopsticks; Mabuta showed me how to break the tendrils via a rolling motion with my chopsticks.

I fully expected to hate the stuff and was shocked to discover that I actually liked it. Go figure. Now I want to try freshly-prepared natto to see how much of a difference it makes and the taste and texture.

More information about natto, for those who must know more:

Japantips.net: natto
NattoLand



Red bean ice cream and green tea ice cream. Yum!

August 2004 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments

LJ user pics

Yesterday evening, I spend a couple hours sitting on the living room couch, playing with Corel Painter on my Wacom Artpad. I've been experimenting with gouache brushes recently...might start using gouache sometimes instead of watercolour in my comics for a while.

Also worked on some Livejournal userpics for fun. A couple of months ago, I posted this Livejournal entry offering to draw userpics for the first 50 people who signed up (yes, I'm crazy). No guarantees of deadlines, content, or even whether it would be done at all...but the 50 slots (and more) were filled up much more quickly than I expected.

Here are some of the pics I've done so far. To see a particular person's LJ, click on the pic. The icons below are not free or available for distribution. They are for use only by the individual they were made for.
















June 2004 comments:
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