Well today I had to choose a shipping company, since all the rate proposals I had were going to expire tomorrow. I have been going back and fort between shipping company for the past month. I've looked at their rates, the services they provide, their BBB rating and general customer feedback. A quite time consuming process. 5 companies made the final cut.
Today I tossed out IntlMove and Guardian Relocation. The first company has pages after pages of unresolved customer complaints against them and Guardian has a BBB Rating of D-. That left me with Allied Van Lines, Schumacher Cargo and Crown Relocation.
Crown Relocation has a A- BBB Rating, but I didn't go with them as their proposal was for $ 4700. I have to add to that the Maritime Insurance about $ 300, that would bring the total up to $ 5000. That's way more than I'm willing to spend to have 8 to 10 boxes measuring 24x24x18 shipped to Austria.
That left me with Allied Van Lines and Schumacher Cargo. Both have a very similar BBB Rating and they have similar customer complaints. So that didn't help me make the decision either. What it finally was a deciding factor was the price. Including Maritime Insurance going with Schumacher costs me $ 1000 less. And that's quite a nice chunk of spare change. So I filled out online reservation form and gave them the go-ahead. A couple of minutes later I had the preliminary booking reservation. It will take them 24 to 48 to provide me with the final booking confirmation.
After that I went to have the money order for the holding deposit issued. It didn't even occur to me that I can't pay for a money order with the credit card. So I guess that will have to wait until tomorrow. Isn't really a problem since the signed service contract with holding deposit wouldn't have been sent out today anyways.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
More Relocation Prep-Work
Today I had to do some more relocation prep work. Nothing major, but the all the small things need to be done as well.
First up I had to order some of Daisy's Meds for the transition period. Heartworm is no problem, since I have enough of those. Advantix on the other hand is a different story. So I decided to order a box and have it sent to my parents. That way when Daisy gets to Austria the Advantix will already be there and I don't have to look on day 1 for VET to get a replacement for the Advantix. On top of that 1800-Pet-Meds was having sale and I was having a coupon as well. So all in all I saved 17 bucks. Not bad at all.
Next up were the moving boxes. I can't use average boxes since they have to be up to 'code', so to speak. What that means is basically that they have at least to hold a weight of 60 lbs. I looked around online and found a company selling boxes that hold up to 100 lbs at very reasonable prices. So I decided to go with them. Well turns out that the product price is reasonable, but the shipping costs are not. They wanted as much for the shipping than the product is worth. And I wasn't going to do that. After a little more research I found boxes, that are up to 'code', at Staples. I called the local Staples stores right away to check if they had them in stock. Well, they didn't have the size I needed in stock. So I decided to order them online. While I was doing that I ordered Bubble Wrap and Heavy-Duty Tape as well. If all works according to plan I should have the boxes by the end of this week.
First up I had to order some of Daisy's Meds for the transition period. Heartworm is no problem, since I have enough of those. Advantix on the other hand is a different story. So I decided to order a box and have it sent to my parents. That way when Daisy gets to Austria the Advantix will already be there and I don't have to look on day 1 for VET to get a replacement for the Advantix. On top of that 1800-Pet-Meds was having sale and I was having a coupon as well. So all in all I saved 17 bucks. Not bad at all.
Next up were the moving boxes. I can't use average boxes since they have to be up to 'code', so to speak. What that means is basically that they have at least to hold a weight of 60 lbs. I looked around online and found a company selling boxes that hold up to 100 lbs at very reasonable prices. So I decided to go with them. Well turns out that the product price is reasonable, but the shipping costs are not. They wanted as much for the shipping than the product is worth. And I wasn't going to do that. After a little more research I found boxes, that are up to 'code', at Staples. I called the local Staples stores right away to check if they had them in stock. Well, they didn't have the size I needed in stock. So I decided to order them online. While I was doing that I ordered Bubble Wrap and Heavy-Duty Tape as well. If all works according to plan I should have the boxes by the end of this week.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Relocation Prep-Work
Today was pretty much all about 'smaller' items regarding the relocation. The first thing on the agenda were the crate pads for Daisy. I had narrowed it down to 3 choices. 2 with DryFur technology and one regular foam pad. Well they all would have been sufficient for airline regulation. As fur as the airline is concerned it just has to be able to absorb liquid. So if you were just to put shredded newspaper into the crate that would be sufficient. But I wanted something that is absorbent and traps the moisture quickly in the inside of the pad. That way I can be sure, if an accidental spill were to occur, that Daisy is not spending a long parts of the trip in a wet crate. On the other hand the pad shouldn't be too thick either, or it might make the trip uncomfortable for her, since she is traveling in summer. So I finally decided on a rather thin pad that uses DryFur technology. I ordered it online and if everything goes according to plan the pad should be arriving be the end of this week.
Around 11.30 am I was having an appointment with a prospective buyer for my truck. I met him the the Agua Dulce Winery. I figured that is way easier to find then having to explain to the guy how he gets to our house. He showed up around 11.45 looked at the truck and he did like it. He told me that he had to look at several other trucks and would make his decision by Wednesday or Thursday. Guess I'll have to wait and see what happens.
After I got back from the truck appointment I continued to consolidate my hard drives and made quite good progress. If everything goes according to plan I should be done consolidating 2 out or 3 hard drives within the next couple of days.
Around 11.30 am I was having an appointment with a prospective buyer for my truck. I met him the the Agua Dulce Winery. I figured that is way easier to find then having to explain to the guy how he gets to our house. He showed up around 11.45 looked at the truck and he did like it. He told me that he had to look at several other trucks and would make his decision by Wednesday or Thursday. Guess I'll have to wait and see what happens.
After I got back from the truck appointment I continued to consolidate my hard drives and made quite good progress. If everything goes according to plan I should be done consolidating 2 out or 3 hard drives within the next couple of days.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Yard Work is Done...
Well I was pretty determined to get the rest of the yard work done. I started around 10 am and the temperature was already up to 90 F. I went out to deal with the rest of the south facing slope. I was actually making very good progress. About 1 hour later I ran out of battery, but had the majority of the slope finished. I went inside to take a break and that was the right choice, since the temperature had already gone up to 98 F... and that's definitely too hot for yard work as far as I'm concerned.
At 4.30 pm I went back out again. The temperature had gone down to to about 91 F. I started with the rest of the south facing slope. I thought that it would take me probably another hour, but I was done way quicker than that. 1/2 later the entire slope was finally free of weeds. I was very excited about that. If the temperature stays the way it is, that should be the end of the yard work.
To celebrate the end of the yard work, Kenny took me out to one of our favorite restaurants, Outback Steak House. Both Kenny and I had Steak and Cheddar Fries...not what you call a healthy choice, but it was so yummy!!
At 4.30 pm I went back out again. The temperature had gone down to to about 91 F. I started with the rest of the south facing slope. I thought that it would take me probably another hour, but I was done way quicker than that. 1/2 later the entire slope was finally free of weeds. I was very excited about that. If the temperature stays the way it is, that should be the end of the yard work.
To celebrate the end of the yard work, Kenny took me out to one of our favorite restaurants, Outback Steak House. Both Kenny and I had Steak and Cheddar Fries...not what you call a healthy choice, but it was so yummy!!
Thursday, June 23, 2011
And the Yard Work continues...
Well, today was another day of doing yard work. I was going to start with the south facing slope. When I got out there the temperature was already up to 90 F. So I was going to limit the time I was working on that slope to about 1 hour. I really didn't want to have a repeat of yesterday's 'adventure' with the heat exhaustion. So I started with the south facing slope around 10 am. And I was making quite good progress. By the time the first battery ran out I had cut down about 1/3 of the weeds. Since I had spent about 1 hour I decided to take a break. Turns out that was the right decision, since the temperature was meanwhile up to 97 F...and that's way too hot for yard work.
I spent the rest of the afternoon inside and got some more work consolidation the hard drives done. At 6 pm I went back out to do more yard work. It was still quite toasty...around 95 F, but we had a nice breeze going and the south facing slope was already mostly in the shade. I worked for about 1 hour and made good progress. By the time I ran out of battery I had cleared about 2/3's of the south facing slope. I'm quite happy with the progress. If all goes according to plan I should be done with the weeds by tomorrow.
I spent the rest of the afternoon inside and got some more work consolidation the hard drives done. At 6 pm I went back out to do more yard work. It was still quite toasty...around 95 F, but we had a nice breeze going and the south facing slope was already mostly in the shade. I worked for about 1 hour and made good progress. By the time I ran out of battery I had cleared about 2/3's of the south facing slope. I'm quite happy with the progress. If all goes according to plan I should be done with the weeds by tomorrow.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
More Yard Work
For today I had planned to do more hard drive consolidation, but around 10 am the temperature was already up to 90 F and so I decided to start yard work right away. I had to deal with the second generation weeds on the east facing slope. I went up there and started to cut them down and actually made quite good progress. Daisy definitely had the better part of the deal. She figured out quite quickly that the best place was in the shade under one of the trees. While I was working on the slope the temperature was climbing higher and higher, but I really didn't realize that. I should have listened to my gut feeling and stopped after about 1 hour. But there was just this small patch of weeds left and I really wanted to get done with it and so I finished it. Bad idea!! While walking down the hill I didn't feel so good and I knew it was time to go inside to cool down. I turned the AC on and laid down in front of the fan with legs elevated. I mad it there just in time as I was starting to feel like passing out...and that's just not a fun feeling. Took me about 1/2 hour to recover from the entire thing. When I checked the outside temps at around 1 pm it was up to 98 F...and that's just way too hot to do yard work.
Daisy and I relaxed inside and I realized that ants had invaded the TV-Room and were starting to build their hub there. I'm all for protection of wildlife, but not necessarily in my house...so it was time for an permanent intervention. Around 6 pm I went back out to do some more yard work. The temps were back down to about 90 F and we had a little breeze going. I had to drive 2 wheel barrels of weeds over to the big trash dumpster and then I started to cut down some weeds on the south facing slope. But very soon I ran out of battery.
All in all a quite productive day!!
Daisy and I relaxed inside and I realized that ants had invaded the TV-Room and were starting to build their hub there. I'm all for protection of wildlife, but not necessarily in my house...so it was time for an permanent intervention. Around 6 pm I went back out to do some more yard work. The temps were back down to about 90 F and we had a little breeze going. I had to drive 2 wheel barrels of weeds over to the big trash dumpster and then I started to cut down some weeds on the south facing slope. But very soon I ran out of battery.
All in all a quite productive day!!
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
2009 Dodge RAM 1500 SLT 4x4 Quad Cab Pickup -- for Sale!!!
Year: 2009
Make: Dodge
Model: RAM 1500
Trim: SLT
Engine: 5.7 Liter HEMI V8 Gas / 390 HP
Transmission: 5 Speed Automatic w. Overdrive
Drivetrain: 4WD
Mileage: 28.000
Exterior Color: Black
Make: Dodge
Model: RAM 1500
Trim: SLT
Engine: 5.7 Liter HEMI V8 Gas / 390 HP
Transmission: 5 Speed Automatic w. Overdrive
Drivetrain: 4WD
Mileage: 28.000
Exterior Color: Black
Price: $ 28.500
Tags expire: 05 / 2012
Equipment:
Equipment:
- 2nd Row Split Bench Seat
- Aluminium Wheels
- Auto-On/Auto-Off Headlights
- Privacy Glass
- Auxiliary Power Outlet
- Electronic Stability Control
- Break Assist
- Front Reading Lamps
- Traction Control
- 4-Wheel Disc Brakes
- AC
- Sliding Rear Window
- Power Door Locks
- Heated Power Exterior Mirrors
- Adjustable Steering Wheel
- Cruise Control
- Intermittent Wipers
- Child Safety Locks
- Cloth Seats
- 4-Wheel Drive
- Auxiliary Audio Input
- CD/MP3 Player
- Satellite Radio
- Trip Computer
- Tire Pressure Monitoring System
- Power Steering
- Keyless Entry
- Power Windows
- Lifetime Powertrain Warranty
- 6’x5’ Truckbed
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Cleaning my Truck
Well I just don't clean that truck regularly. If you're living on a dirt road you abandon cleaning your truck very quickly. There is really not much reason for that. Driving down the dirt road once and you car is dirty again. For most part that has never really bothered me. Now that I'm putting my truck up for sale I had to deal with that issue.
I first cleaned out stuff of the truck, that no longer needs to be in there. Next up was vacuuming the inside. Well, that's easier said than done. The have a electrical outlet in reach I had to park the car very close the garage. Once that was done the vacuuming 'fun' could start. Well, being a dog owner that was quite one 'furry' truck. Front and passengers side weren't that bad and I was actually done fairly quickly. The back seats were an entirely different story. I spent about 1 1/2 to 2 hours vacuuming all the dog hair off the back seats. In the end it was a success and the truck is now looking quite decent. Next I cleaned the inside of the windows and all the plastic parts and was quite happy with the progress.
After lunch I washed the majority of the dirt of the truck and then gave it a quite good wash-down. After that I just had to wash the truck one more time and it looked really good. Now my truck is all clean and shiny again!! Since I was already wet anyways I figured it might be good time to give Daisy a bath. As usually she really dislikes it. She lets me do it, but isn't too happy about out. Now I've a clean dog as well!!
Of course no good deed ever goes unpunished. While I was washing the truck it never even occurred to me that being shirtless out in the sun with no sun protection and the sun burning down hardcore is probably not the smartest idea. As I already said, it didn't occur to me while was doing that. A couple of hours later I felt that I did in fact get sunburned. It happens to me at least once a year. Guess that's the one time for 2011.
I first cleaned out stuff of the truck, that no longer needs to be in there. Next up was vacuuming the inside. Well, that's easier said than done. The have a electrical outlet in reach I had to park the car very close the garage. Once that was done the vacuuming 'fun' could start. Well, being a dog owner that was quite one 'furry' truck. Front and passengers side weren't that bad and I was actually done fairly quickly. The back seats were an entirely different story. I spent about 1 1/2 to 2 hours vacuuming all the dog hair off the back seats. In the end it was a success and the truck is now looking quite decent. Next I cleaned the inside of the windows and all the plastic parts and was quite happy with the progress.
After lunch I washed the majority of the dirt of the truck and then gave it a quite good wash-down. After that I just had to wash the truck one more time and it looked really good. Now my truck is all clean and shiny again!! Since I was already wet anyways I figured it might be good time to give Daisy a bath. As usually she really dislikes it. She lets me do it, but isn't too happy about out. Now I've a clean dog as well!!
Of course no good deed ever goes unpunished. While I was washing the truck it never even occurred to me that being shirtless out in the sun with no sun protection and the sun burning down hardcore is probably not the smartest idea. As I already said, it didn't occur to me while was doing that. A couple of hours later I felt that I did in fact get sunburned. It happens to me at least once a year. Guess that's the one time for 2011.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Running Errands and Lake Balboa
Well today I had to run errands in the San Fernando Valley. I figured, that I might as well take Daisy with me and hang out with her at Lake Balboa. It's probably one of the last times that I get the chance to take her there. I left at 10.15 am and by that time the sun had already burned off the Marine Layer in the Antelope Valley. As soon as I got to the I-5 it was back to ugly and overcast. I still was hopeful, that it would burn off the Marine Layer around noon. I went to AHF and picked up my meds and then Daisy and I drove over to Lake Balboa. We hang out there for about 30 minutes and then took usual walk around the lake. The Marine Layer never disappeared and it was about 15 degree colder than yesterday. Daisy definitely was having a blast. By about 2.30 pm we were back home.
We relaxed for a couple of hours and then I went back out to do some more yard work. Not quite sure what it is with me and plugging in the second battery pack...that's now the second day in a row that I forgot to do that. So I figured I will cut weeds down until I run out of battery. I made quite good progress and managed to cut down almost all weeds between the garage and the house. Guess that section will have to wait.
All in all it was quite a fun day!!
We relaxed for a couple of hours and then I went back out to do some more yard work. Not quite sure what it is with me and plugging in the second battery pack...that's now the second day in a row that I forgot to do that. So I figured I will cut weeds down until I run out of battery. I made quite good progress and managed to cut down almost all weeds between the garage and the house. Guess that section will have to wait.
All in all it was quite a fun day!!
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Pre-Move Survey and Yardwork
Today I had the last pre-move survey with a representative of Crown Relocations. The appointment was at 10 am and I was pretty sure that the representative would be late. Most of the people trying to get to our house get either lost or are very confused with the dirt road. To my surprise the Rep. found the house without any problems and was on time as well. We made the walk trough and I pointed out the pieces that I plan on relocating. The survey didn't take long and by the end of this week or the beginning of next week I should have a binding quote. After I have that quote I will have until the end of June to decide which relocation company is going to get the contract. Right now I'm quite torn when it comes to that question.
After the survey I went outside to do some more yard work. I started to whack down the weeds between the garage and the house. Got about 2/3 done when I the battery ran out. Unfortunately I forgot to plug in the second batter pack. So there wasn't much I could do. So I decided to pull the weeds on the west facing slope instead. Got about half of the hill done, when I suddenly felt like passing out. So I took a break, went inside and cooled down in front of the fan with the AC running. Not quite sure what brought that on. I couldn't have been dehydrated since I had been drinking enough. The only thing I can think of is, that it was the heat...since it was the first time this year, that I did yard work with the temps in the 90's. And of course wearing a long sleeve shirt as protection against the weeds wasn't helpful with the heat either.
Later in the afternoon I went back out again. I was hoping that it would have already cooled down a little. Turns out that didn't quite happen, but parts of the west facing slope had already shade. Working in the shade is way more comfy then when the sun is burning down on you. I spent a little over 1 hour and then the west facing slope was once again free of second-generation weeds.
So all in all a quite productive day!!
After the survey I went outside to do some more yard work. I started to whack down the weeds between the garage and the house. Got about 2/3 done when I the battery ran out. Unfortunately I forgot to plug in the second batter pack. So there wasn't much I could do. So I decided to pull the weeds on the west facing slope instead. Got about half of the hill done, when I suddenly felt like passing out. So I took a break, went inside and cooled down in front of the fan with the AC running. Not quite sure what brought that on. I couldn't have been dehydrated since I had been drinking enough. The only thing I can think of is, that it was the heat...since it was the first time this year, that I did yard work with the temps in the 90's. And of course wearing a long sleeve shirt as protection against the weeds wasn't helpful with the heat either.
Later in the afternoon I went back out again. I was hoping that it would have already cooled down a little. Turns out that didn't quite happen, but parts of the west facing slope had already shade. Working in the shade is way more comfy then when the sun is burning down on you. I spent a little over 1 hour and then the west facing slope was once again free of second-generation weeds.
So all in all a quite productive day!!
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition Screening
Went with Kenny and his friends Andrew, Adam and Aaron. The room was pretty packed but not full. First to come on screen with Peter Jackson who explained that these releases are the first and only showing of the new REMASTERED Lord of the Rings Trilogy Extended Editions. I guess they remastered the video and audio for the Blu-Rays.. so in essence we were watching the Blu-ray version of the movie on the big screen. We watched it on a AMC's E.X.T. screen.. not sure what that means but I know it’s supposed to be the best digital video and sound they have.
The crowd was great, some dressed up but all very extremely excited. Every time a new character would come on screen folks would hoot and holler. The video was exceptional, but I have to admit that seeing it in HD you can tell when it's not the main actors and it's one of the little people with a mask on. I don't think I noticed it that much before but watching it in HD on a huge screen you kind of notices now. Still didn't take any of the joy away from watching it again. This was the first time that I've seen 'Fellowship of the Ring - Extended Edition' in the theaters...at least it's the first time that I've seen it in English. I've seen it years ago, but it was dubbed into German. Seeing it for the first time in English and in gorgeous HD was quite a treat. Like the video the sounds was amazing, some scenes would shake the chairs it was so powerful. I know some folks in my party got a headache from the sound but I thought it was AWESOME.
It was a great experience, and during certain parts I teared up. This is definitely my favorite of the Trilogy. Every time I watch LOTR I think it's such a bummer that they very rarely make movies of such a epic scale. I'm still debating on going next Tuesday to see 'The Two Towers'.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
2nd Truck Repair Attempt and more Yardwork
Well today I attempted for the second time to have the bumper of my Ram 1500 replaced. I got up around 6.15 am, since I wanted to have enough time to get ready and to check on emails and tweets. Worked out very well and by 7 am I was already on the road. Not sure what was different today, but I hit medium heavy traffic from Santa Clarita to the 14/I-5 Interchange and on the 118 it was pretty much bumper to bumper all the way to Topanga Canyon. As usual Topanga was busy, but traffic kept moving and I got to the Dodge Dealer at 8.05 am. I dropped off the truck and walked over to Denny's on Topanga to have breakfast. This time I ordered a Lumberjack Slam (Scrambled Eggs, Bacon, Ham, Wheat Toast and 2 Pancakes). Boy, it was sooo yummy!!. I took my time, since I knew it would take them roughly about 1 1/2 hours to finish the work on the car. After breakfast I spent some time checking on my emails, tweets and facebook. During breakfast I had the idea, that it might be a fun event to have Denny's style breakfast events once a month, as soon as I've settled in when relocating back to Austria. Around 9.15 am I headed over to the Dodge Dealer and was prepared for a waiting game. I just had sat down in their customer lounge, when I got a phone call from them, that my truck was ready. What a huge difference compared with yesterday and way more in line with what their customer service usually is like. I walked over to the Repair Department, paid the additional $ 155 for labor and tax and then I was on my way back home. Now I have a shiny new rear bumper and I'm a huge step closer to being able to put the truck up for sale.
Next up was some yard work. I wanted to get it started before it got really hot. I went out to continue to cut down the weeds in the driveway and I made quite good progress. After 1 hour and going through both battery packs the entire drive is free of weeds. Looks very nice and I'm quite happy with the progress. Of course no good deed ever goes unpunished...while cutting down the weeds I piece of gravel took off and nailed me right in the shin. Other than that everything else went according to plan.
I went back in and after taking some time to cool off I vacuumed and cleaned the hardwood floors. So all in all a quite productive day.
Next up was some yard work. I wanted to get it started before it got really hot. I went out to continue to cut down the weeds in the driveway and I made quite good progress. After 1 hour and going through both battery packs the entire drive is free of weeds. Looks very nice and I'm quite happy with the progress. Of course no good deed ever goes unpunished...while cutting down the weeds I piece of gravel took off and nailed me right in the shin. Other than that everything else went according to plan.
I went back in and after taking some time to cool off I vacuumed and cleaned the hardwood floors. So all in all a quite productive day.
Truck Repair & Yardwork
Today I was having an appointment to have the damaged bumper of my truck replaced. The only appoint I could get early in the week was today between 8 and 9 am. Wasn't quite a happy camper about the early appointment, since it takes me about 45 min. to get to the truck dealer. So I got up at 6.30 am checked my emails, tweets etc. and then started getting ready to head out. Well I was about running 15 min. late, but did make it to the truck dealer at about 8.20 am. I had called for the appointment last Thursday to make sure that they can do to bumper exchange. Usually they're very good in having all parts in stock and doing the repair work in time. He took a look at the truck, just to let me know that he doesn't haven the bumper for the RAM 1500 SLT in store, but can it have there by tomorrow morning. I wasn't particularly happy about that. So I told him to get the bumper and set everything up for tomorrow morning. Turns out that I have either to leave the truck there or make a security deposit in order for them to order the bumper. First I was considering to leave the truck there over night, but he couldn't even give me an estimate when they have someone available to drive me back to Agua Dulce. So I decided to go with the security deposit instead. From the point of the customer, that wasn't particularly their proudest moment.
After that I headed over to Denny's on Canoga Park since I was starving and had their healthy Breakfast version called 'Fit Slam'. That are egg-whites with spinach, turkey bacon, muffins and a cup of fruit. Was actually quite yummy. After breakfast I headed over to the Vet to Sherman Oaks to pick up some meds for Daisy. I should have gone with me gut instinct and taken the back roads, but know I just had to take the freeway and got stuck in a traffic jam...Yeah, you just gotta love traffic.
After I got back home from the VET I went outside to do some yard work. Since this is a La Nina year, we have way cooler temperatures than usual and had quite a wet winter and that let's the weeds grow like crazy. Basically I have to cut down all the weeds around the house at least twice a month and it's really getting old. Today I managed to cut down the weeds along the back deck and along the east side of our property. I even to managed to do parts of the driveway. After that I ran out of battery and that pretty much concluded today's yard work. Although I'm not a big fan of triple digit temperatures, this year I would like to have triple digits for 1 week, that at least would kill the weeds. I just would to have to cut them once and would be finally done with it. But so far it doesn't look that's going to happen any time soon.
After that I headed over to Denny's on Canoga Park since I was starving and had their healthy Breakfast version called 'Fit Slam'. That are egg-whites with spinach, turkey bacon, muffins and a cup of fruit. Was actually quite yummy. After breakfast I headed over to the Vet to Sherman Oaks to pick up some meds for Daisy. I should have gone with me gut instinct and taken the back roads, but know I just had to take the freeway and got stuck in a traffic jam...Yeah, you just gotta love traffic.
After I got back home from the VET I went outside to do some yard work. Since this is a La Nina year, we have way cooler temperatures than usual and had quite a wet winter and that let's the weeds grow like crazy. Basically I have to cut down all the weeds around the house at least twice a month and it's really getting old. Today I managed to cut down the weeds along the back deck and along the east side of our property. I even to managed to do parts of the driveway. After that I ran out of battery and that pretty much concluded today's yard work. Although I'm not a big fan of triple digit temperatures, this year I would like to have triple digits for 1 week, that at least would kill the weeds. I just would to have to cut them once and would be finally done with it. But so far it doesn't look that's going to happen any time soon.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Joining 'Diaspora - Alpha'
Well, Facebook has been getting on my nerves for a very long time. There are just too many things that I absolutely dislike. Let's start off with the less serious issues.
There's the issue with the Facebook Ads: I use social media platforms to interact with family, friends, co-workers and peers. I really don't care for those Ads and they're to no use to me, except that they're highly annoying.
The next issue are the Facebook Games: Those are of absolutely no use to me and as far as I'm concerned they don't belong into a social media platform. They would be appropriate in a social media platform solely geared towards gaming. They just clutter up my side-pane and mess up my News-Feed.
My next issue is with Facebook's IT-Approach: I'm the quintessential federalist and I absolutely dislike centralized solutions and centralized server farms, where they aren't necessary. On top of that I hate handing my personal data over to company without having any control over who accesses that data and who uses it. Social Media was never meant to be centralized, it always was meant to be hosted localized.
There have been more incidents than I care to count where Private User Data has been leaked to the internet, has been sold to third-party providers, without Facebook ever telling users about that security vulnerability. On top of that Facebook never apologized for any of those security screw ups or took any responsibility of any sort. That is definitely very concerning. On top of that during the entire WikiLeaks circus, where Social Media Platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have been subpoenaed to hand over Private User Data, regardless of user nationality. That was something that made me particularly uncomfortable and shows the huge vulnerability of a centralized IT-Approach. If on the other hand every User were to host his own Social Media Node locally, things like the WikiLeaks Subpoena circus wouldn't be possible.
Facebook's latest privacy disaster, the unannounced release of Face-Recognition (a feature that suggest your photos to your friends in order to be tagged without our permission...see my Blog Post "Facebook's Face-Recognition") finally got me to a point where it is time for a major change.
I've been looking around for a replacement for Facebook for quite some time and there are option out there. Some of those are more email based, others are more Forum based and platforms like Crabgrass work well for Grassroots movements but weren't quite working the way I use social media. When they announced the concept for Diaspora in 2010 I was very excited. The concept pretty much works the way I use social media and it addresses issue Facebook was never able or willing to. Recently I came across the first stable release of Diaspora, called Diaspora - Alpha. Since I was already familiar with the concept I joined it and I was very excited, but clean cut design.
Currently Diaspora is very basic and depending on the pod you have your account with, it can be a little sluggish at times. But chances are, they more pods are out there the more that will improve, especially if you were to host your own Diaspora pod.
Here are some of the things I would like to see in upcoming releases: A calendar/event scheduler, Photo-Albums, a editor for Notes and the ability to share Audio & Video.
It doesn't mean that I'm getting rid of Facebook right away. It's a way to decentralize social media and to take more and more control away from centralized social media platforms such as Facebook. Eventually my interaction with Facebook will be kept to a absolute minimum. In want to end up with a social media approach that might look a little like that: You want to see photos of a recent even I participated in...go to my website (hosted by myself). You want to see videos of an event...go to my YouTube Channel or to the video section of my website. You want to interact socially with me...join me on Diaspora (most likely going to be hosted on my own web-server).
Definitely looking forward to upcoming releases!!
There's the issue with the Facebook Ads: I use social media platforms to interact with family, friends, co-workers and peers. I really don't care for those Ads and they're to no use to me, except that they're highly annoying.
The next issue are the Facebook Games: Those are of absolutely no use to me and as far as I'm concerned they don't belong into a social media platform. They would be appropriate in a social media platform solely geared towards gaming. They just clutter up my side-pane and mess up my News-Feed.
My next issue is with Facebook's IT-Approach: I'm the quintessential federalist and I absolutely dislike centralized solutions and centralized server farms, where they aren't necessary. On top of that I hate handing my personal data over to company without having any control over who accesses that data and who uses it. Social Media was never meant to be centralized, it always was meant to be hosted localized.
There have been more incidents than I care to count where Private User Data has been leaked to the internet, has been sold to third-party providers, without Facebook ever telling users about that security vulnerability. On top of that Facebook never apologized for any of those security screw ups or took any responsibility of any sort. That is definitely very concerning. On top of that during the entire WikiLeaks circus, where Social Media Platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have been subpoenaed to hand over Private User Data, regardless of user nationality. That was something that made me particularly uncomfortable and shows the huge vulnerability of a centralized IT-Approach. If on the other hand every User were to host his own Social Media Node locally, things like the WikiLeaks Subpoena circus wouldn't be possible.
Facebook's latest privacy disaster, the unannounced release of Face-Recognition (a feature that suggest your photos to your friends in order to be tagged without our permission...see my Blog Post "Facebook's Face-Recognition") finally got me to a point where it is time for a major change.
I've been looking around for a replacement for Facebook for quite some time and there are option out there. Some of those are more email based, others are more Forum based and platforms like Crabgrass work well for Grassroots movements but weren't quite working the way I use social media. When they announced the concept for Diaspora in 2010 I was very excited. The concept pretty much works the way I use social media and it addresses issue Facebook was never able or willing to. Recently I came across the first stable release of Diaspora, called Diaspora - Alpha. Since I was already familiar with the concept I joined it and I was very excited, but clean cut design.
- Diaspora gives you full control over what you share with whom. Diaspora uses Aspects, what is similar to groups, to group your connections. That way you can be absolutely certain that your photos, messages, jokes... are only being shared with the intended audience. You can even share your content with Twitter and Facebook, but only people who have your permission can view the content.
- Diaspora is very clear about the ownership of content. All your content is yours!!
- Sharing things in Diaspora is clean and easy. The same applies to privacy. It's actually quite intuitive.
- One of the things that impresses me about Diaspora is that it is decentralized. It's hosted on multiple decentralized servers called pods. Every User, with a little of basic server knowledge, can host his own Diaspora Server. But if you don't feel comfy with that you just get an account with an existing Diaspora pod.
Currently Diaspora is very basic and depending on the pod you have your account with, it can be a little sluggish at times. But chances are, they more pods are out there the more that will improve, especially if you were to host your own Diaspora pod.
Here are some of the things I would like to see in upcoming releases: A calendar/event scheduler, Photo-Albums, a editor for Notes and the ability to share Audio & Video.
It doesn't mean that I'm getting rid of Facebook right away. It's a way to decentralize social media and to take more and more control away from centralized social media platforms such as Facebook. Eventually my interaction with Facebook will be kept to a absolute minimum. In want to end up with a social media approach that might look a little like that: You want to see photos of a recent even I participated in...go to my website (hosted by myself). You want to see videos of an event...go to my YouTube Channel or to the video section of my website. You want to interact socially with me...join me on Diaspora (most likely going to be hosted on my own web-server).
Definitely looking forward to upcoming releases!!
Facebook 'Face-Recognition'
Here are the latest news from Facebook's disastrous changes in their User-Security and Private-Security Layer. Facebook's User- and Private-Security Layer has more holes than swiss cheese. Instead of fixing those bugs and security vulnerabilities, Facebook rolls out yet another, even more dangerous feature: Face- Recognition.
In 'old' Facebook fashion they roll the change out without even telling anyone. It's the wrong way yet again!! This feature suggest photos stored in your facebook account to your friends, in order to be tagged by your friends. And of course this feature is be default set to 'Enable'!! You can't prevent that 'suggestion' process...only after you realize that one of your photos has been tagged by one of your friends, you have option to remove the tag. You don't get any notification that you have been tagged.
That, as every single thing facebook does, goes against everything what social media should be. If you roll out a change that effects user privacy, you inform all users about that change. Such a change should by default be 'Opt-In' and not be automatically enabled. If someone wants to tag a photo of me I should be asked for permission first. But that something you apparently can't have with Facebook!! That's a huge #FAIL in my book!!
Your only choice, in order to prevent your pictures being tagged without your permission, is to disable that particular function all together. Here's how you accomplish that:
Go to Account --> Privacy Settings --> Customize Settings --> in the category 'Things others share' --> Edit Settings of 'Suggest photos of me to friends' --> and change the permission from 'enabled' to "DISABLED" --> Then hit 'Okay'.
In 'old' Facebook fashion they roll the change out without even telling anyone. It's the wrong way yet again!! This feature suggest photos stored in your facebook account to your friends, in order to be tagged by your friends. And of course this feature is be default set to 'Enable'!! You can't prevent that 'suggestion' process...only after you realize that one of your photos has been tagged by one of your friends, you have option to remove the tag. You don't get any notification that you have been tagged.
That, as every single thing facebook does, goes against everything what social media should be. If you roll out a change that effects user privacy, you inform all users about that change. Such a change should by default be 'Opt-In' and not be automatically enabled. If someone wants to tag a photo of me I should be asked for permission first. But that something you apparently can't have with Facebook!! That's a huge #FAIL in my book!!
Your only choice, in order to prevent your pictures being tagged without your permission, is to disable that particular function all together. Here's how you accomplish that:
Go to Account --> Privacy Settings --> Customize Settings --> in the category 'Things others share' --> Edit Settings of 'Suggest photos of me to friends' --> and change the permission from 'enabled' to "DISABLED" --> Then hit 'Okay'.
The Trouble with Cloud Networks
First let me say, that I'm a huge proponent of federalist principles. When it comes to computers and networks, decentralizing is the way to go. Centralized data collection are just a terrible idea. The more data is being stored at 1 location, to more vulnerable to attacks of any kind that becomes and it puts user data and user privacy at a huge risk. Besides that having user documents stored centralized means in essence, that a government or a single company basically controls those documents. That's a huge danger to free speech. That way critical content can be suppressed with a few mouse clicks. For that reason alone I'm absolutely against centralized cloud networks. With that being said, there's another layer to that issue: Once I hand over my documents to a cloud network, I have no real control over it. I don't know which company employee accesses, catalogs, reports it to authorities, hands over my private user data to authorities with me ever being told so and I don't know how many redundant versions of my content exist. Even if I remove the content the doesn't remove the redundant versions of the content. I'm not talking about search results...I'm talking about a redundant copy of the content on a backup server. In order to have all redundant copies removed I need a court order. But even with that court order I can't be entirely sure that all redundant copies have actually been removed. On top of that with cloud networks there's always the question of the content copyright. That is still pretty much a grey area. Some TOS spell out the copyright very detailed, many are quite vague on that subject and then there are those, where the process of uploading content voids your copyright to that content and hands it over to the owner of the cloud network.
With all that being said, could networks do have their benefits especially for national and multi-national corporations. For the majority of the private end-user could networks are just a bad idea. The security if user data and user privacy can't be guaranteed. Besides that, this is the 21st century and centralized networks are no longer necessary for the private end-user. We have the technology and the equipment to make user data that is stored at point A available at point B.
There was a time when private websites needed the computing power and bandwidth of server farms and cloud networks. That's something that now doesn't apply in the same way. Most bandwidth intensive content like video is being stored on cloud networks anyway. Through the process of embedding the bandwidth requirements of private websites have greatly been reduced. Since the bandwidth demand of private websites has greatly been reduced and the fact that a lot of computer users have broadband connections anyway, that starts to make shared hosting accounts more and more obsolete. The average computer user has to option to easily host the static part of his own website locally. Hosting your website locally has a number of benefits: The yearly expense of a website is about $ 50 to $ 60 cheaper than if you have to pay a shared hosting account. While it is true, that you will sacrifice some website up-time, you gain complete control over your content. There is no need to upload content to a distant server, since that all happens on your computer. If someone has a problem with your content, they can't just simply have your account suspended. Since you host your own content the only thing someone could do is to have your DNS service suspended. The only thing you have to do is to change the DNS provider and your site is up and running again in a matter of hours. That decentralized thinking is exactly what guarantees the freedom of speech.
I do admit the setup of your personal website will involve a little more work, than when doing it via a shared hosting account. But if I consider that with a little bit of additional work I save at least 2/3 of my yearly website expenses and gain full control over my content, the choice to host my website myself is a rather easy one. Depending on your internet providers bandwidth limits you might even be able to deploy push-technology for 3rd party devices.
So how does my website now measure up to the above:
When I set up my website originally bandwidth limitations forced me to go with a shared hosting account. I was never really happy with that solution. For that reason there was always a redundant copy of my entire website stored on my computer. My Blog is part of a could network environment. The main advantage is a added convenience. But of course I have to accept all the negative aspects about the could network environment. For that reason a redundant copy of my Blog is being stored on my computer. My video content is also part of a cloud network and therefore all video content has a redundant copy on my computer. If I had to I could deploy my entire web-content from redundant copies within a matter of hours.
Of course I was never really happy with that solution. Since I will be moving to Europe in a couple of month and I know that I have a broadband internet connection there, I will eventually host my personal website myself and get rid of my shared hosting account. The Video solution and the Blog will stay the same. Redundant Video and Blog Content will be part of the website, but will be exempt from being published (just a precautionary measure). Haven't made up my mind yet, if all website content will be publicly accessible or if certain content will by PIN-protected. The URL is most likely going to stay the same, but I will definitely consider changing my DNS host. Considering the circus Amazon produced with WikkiLeaks and considering, that my faith in US-based DNS-hosts, in actually doing their job, is non-existent...I will probably end up changing my DNS-host.
With all that being said, could networks do have their benefits especially for national and multi-national corporations. For the majority of the private end-user could networks are just a bad idea. The security if user data and user privacy can't be guaranteed. Besides that, this is the 21st century and centralized networks are no longer necessary for the private end-user. We have the technology and the equipment to make user data that is stored at point A available at point B.
There was a time when private websites needed the computing power and bandwidth of server farms and cloud networks. That's something that now doesn't apply in the same way. Most bandwidth intensive content like video is being stored on cloud networks anyway. Through the process of embedding the bandwidth requirements of private websites have greatly been reduced. Since the bandwidth demand of private websites has greatly been reduced and the fact that a lot of computer users have broadband connections anyway, that starts to make shared hosting accounts more and more obsolete. The average computer user has to option to easily host the static part of his own website locally. Hosting your website locally has a number of benefits: The yearly expense of a website is about $ 50 to $ 60 cheaper than if you have to pay a shared hosting account. While it is true, that you will sacrifice some website up-time, you gain complete control over your content. There is no need to upload content to a distant server, since that all happens on your computer. If someone has a problem with your content, they can't just simply have your account suspended. Since you host your own content the only thing someone could do is to have your DNS service suspended. The only thing you have to do is to change the DNS provider and your site is up and running again in a matter of hours. That decentralized thinking is exactly what guarantees the freedom of speech.
I do admit the setup of your personal website will involve a little more work, than when doing it via a shared hosting account. But if I consider that with a little bit of additional work I save at least 2/3 of my yearly website expenses and gain full control over my content, the choice to host my website myself is a rather easy one. Depending on your internet providers bandwidth limits you might even be able to deploy push-technology for 3rd party devices.
So how does my website now measure up to the above:
When I set up my website originally bandwidth limitations forced me to go with a shared hosting account. I was never really happy with that solution. For that reason there was always a redundant copy of my entire website stored on my computer. My Blog is part of a could network environment. The main advantage is a added convenience. But of course I have to accept all the negative aspects about the could network environment. For that reason a redundant copy of my Blog is being stored on my computer. My video content is also part of a cloud network and therefore all video content has a redundant copy on my computer. If I had to I could deploy my entire web-content from redundant copies within a matter of hours.
Of course I was never really happy with that solution. Since I will be moving to Europe in a couple of month and I know that I have a broadband internet connection there, I will eventually host my personal website myself and get rid of my shared hosting account. The Video solution and the Blog will stay the same. Redundant Video and Blog Content will be part of the website, but will be exempt from being published (just a precautionary measure). Haven't made up my mind yet, if all website content will be publicly accessible or if certain content will by PIN-protected. The URL is most likely going to stay the same, but I will definitely consider changing my DNS host. Considering the circus Amazon produced with WikkiLeaks and considering, that my faith in US-based DNS-hosts, in actually doing their job, is non-existent...I will probably end up changing my DNS-host.
Apple's iCloud & More...
Well I spent today some time to figure out what's the deal will Apple's iCloud. Unless they have missed to mention some truly amazing features, I can only call it a "Rohrkrepierer"... or to put it into English 'a lot of talk about a tiny improvement'.
Let me walk you trough the services the way I understand them and what my thoughts are about them.
What iCloud essentially does is it pushes your stuff, that you have purchased via iTunes, to all your devices once those devices are connected via wifi to the internet. This is the free option. On top of that it also scans your entire iTunes library and matches it with stuff on Apple servers. Those items it can't find on it's servers it uploads to iCloud in order to push it to your devices. This service will cost you $ 25 a year. And of course it syncs your emails, calenders and documents. It only keeps photos for 30 days in the cloud and that's a big NO in my book.
Not a single of those options is particularly new. They all exist in the one or other form. Especially when it comes to cloud storage space there are lot of options out there that keep my stuff for free for up to 90 days and don't cost me a single dime.
What iCloud boils down to is a multi-device sync service in a shiny new package. It certainly doesn't deserve the media fuzz they made about it!
If on the other hand they had created a 'cloud version' of all my files, Apps, Photos, music, docs etc. and let me access it from any device or push it to a device of my choosing, that would have been a huge improvement.
There's even more bad news. iCloud will kill Apple's web-hosting if iWeb websites by June 2012. I haven't been a huge fan of the web-hosting service, since it buggy at times and could be quite a pain especially with large and multi-media content rich websites. I would have liked to see an overhaul of the web-hosting service. Killing the entire service is not the right decision, especially not without offering any alternative. As buggy as the web-hosting service was at times, I did like the good implementation of iWeb and web-hosting service. Since I was going to recreate my personal website after my move to Europe anyways, Apple's web-hosting would have been a serious contender. Guess that's no longer an option.
There is some good news as well. I really enjoyed reading about all the new and quite exciting changes coming with OSX Lion. Really looking forward to the release of it. Full Screen Apps, direct incorporation of the App Store, the Resume- & Version Function definitely top the list of things to look forward to with OSX Lion. And a price of $ 29.99 0r $ 49.99 for OSX Lion Server is a huge Plus in my book.
The decision between OSX Lion and OSX Lion Server will be determined if I will continue to have a shared hosting account within a cloud networking environment or if I will be hosting my personal website myself. The main reasons for hosting the website myself is, that I'm not really a fan of could networking. I will explain that in more detail in a later post.
Let me walk you trough the services the way I understand them and what my thoughts are about them.
What iCloud essentially does is it pushes your stuff, that you have purchased via iTunes, to all your devices once those devices are connected via wifi to the internet. This is the free option. On top of that it also scans your entire iTunes library and matches it with stuff on Apple servers. Those items it can't find on it's servers it uploads to iCloud in order to push it to your devices. This service will cost you $ 25 a year. And of course it syncs your emails, calenders and documents. It only keeps photos for 30 days in the cloud and that's a big NO in my book.
Not a single of those options is particularly new. They all exist in the one or other form. Especially when it comes to cloud storage space there are lot of options out there that keep my stuff for free for up to 90 days and don't cost me a single dime.
What iCloud boils down to is a multi-device sync service in a shiny new package. It certainly doesn't deserve the media fuzz they made about it!
If on the other hand they had created a 'cloud version' of all my files, Apps, Photos, music, docs etc. and let me access it from any device or push it to a device of my choosing, that would have been a huge improvement.
There's even more bad news. iCloud will kill Apple's web-hosting if iWeb websites by June 2012. I haven't been a huge fan of the web-hosting service, since it buggy at times and could be quite a pain especially with large and multi-media content rich websites. I would have liked to see an overhaul of the web-hosting service. Killing the entire service is not the right decision, especially not without offering any alternative. As buggy as the web-hosting service was at times, I did like the good implementation of iWeb and web-hosting service. Since I was going to recreate my personal website after my move to Europe anyways, Apple's web-hosting would have been a serious contender. Guess that's no longer an option.
There is some good news as well. I really enjoyed reading about all the new and quite exciting changes coming with OSX Lion. Really looking forward to the release of it. Full Screen Apps, direct incorporation of the App Store, the Resume- & Version Function definitely top the list of things to look forward to with OSX Lion. And a price of $ 29.99 0r $ 49.99 for OSX Lion Server is a huge Plus in my book.
The decision between OSX Lion and OSX Lion Server will be determined if I will continue to have a shared hosting account within a cloud networking environment or if I will be hosting my personal website myself. The main reasons for hosting the website myself is, that I'm not really a fan of could networking. I will explain that in more detail in a later post.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Relaxing Saturday
Today Kenny and I were supposed to attend Kenny's nephew Kenobi's 2nd Birthday Party and after the party I was supposed to drop Kenny off at the Hollywood Bowl where he was going to see Star Wars in Concert. Well, things didn't go as planned. I wasn't feeling well yesterday and today was not different. Still felt so bloated as if I would start to explode at any minute...and a 2 hour drive to Kenny's nephew certainly didn't seem like a fun thing to do. So I chose to stay home and Kenny went by himself.
That gave me time to continue to consolidate my computers 2 external hard drives...and that is a long and quite tedious process. I will feel very happy once that is accomplished. But I left enough time to simply chill out and relax and spent quite some time to continue with my 'Friends' mini-marathon.
All in all a quite relaxing day...and as the day went on I slowly started to feel a little better.
That gave me time to continue to consolidate my computers 2 external hard drives...and that is a long and quite tedious process. I will feel very happy once that is accomplished. But I left enough time to simply chill out and relax and spent quite some time to continue with my 'Friends' mini-marathon.
All in all a quite relaxing day...and as the day went on I slowly started to feel a little better.
Friday, June 3, 2011
Shipping Quotes Update 2
Today I called Guardian Cargo to clear up the thing with the duplicate auto-responder email and to get a definitive Shipping Quote. I got a hold of their representative right away. Not being transferred back and force was a nice change. The representative took a look at the submitted Inventory Request and give me Quote of $ 1.650 right away. I told him that I would wait for the Binding eMail Quote and call him back if I had any additional questions. A couple of minutes later I received the binding quote and took look at it right away. It spells out pretty much the same thing as all the other quotes I've received so far. There are however 2 major differences: All other moving companies had to request a quote from the freight carrier first, before being able to give me a Quote and that took them all a couple of hours at the least. So I'm not entirely sure how trustworthy that particular quote really is. The second major difference is the fact that this proposal specifically states, that the shipment will arrive at the destination within 45 days. No other shipping company could make that promise so far. (The best I've gotten so far is a delivery time frame of 55 to 95 days!!). There's another thing that is a little bit odd about that shipping quote. This quote doesn't state the time frame they have to request new quotes from the freight carrier and adjust the binding quote accordingly. (It is my understanding that shipping companies usually request new quotes from the freight carrier every 30 days. Furthermore shipping quotes are being honored for 30 days, after that a new quote has to be requested and a shipping proposal has to be adjusted accordingly. This applies to both, shipping proposals and locked in shipping rates).
Next up was call to United Van Lines. I got a hold of them right away. Of course I only found the phone number for the domestic shipping department, but they transferred me to UNI (their international shipping department). I talked with their representative for quite some time and explained him to service I was looking for. He told me their minimum weight requirement is 1000 lbs, what is usually the weight of 1 Bedroom. I'm not quite sure if the stuff I plan on shipping meets their minimum weight requirement. Guess I will have to way the stuff that I plan on shipping and see where we stand. But regardless of that he couldn't give me quote, as they require a pre-move survey in order to request a quote from the freight carrier. United Van Lines will contact me in the next few days to set up an appointment for a pre-move survey.
After that I gave Schumacher Cargo a call. I had already a ballpark estimate of $ 1.600 from them. I asked him right away why their quote is so much less then the quote of their co-competitors. Turns out that most companies charge you for a minimum of 200 cubic feet, while Schumacher charges for a minimum of 100 cubic feet. So I asked him to email me a Binding Quote. A couple of hours later I had that quote and it's pretty much the same as all the other quotes, except that's it about $ 1.000 cheaper. This quote is good till the end of June. Until then I will have to decide if I want to lock the quote or if I request from all the carriers a new quote.
All in all it has been quite a productive day!
Next up was call to United Van Lines. I got a hold of them right away. Of course I only found the phone number for the domestic shipping department, but they transferred me to UNI (their international shipping department). I talked with their representative for quite some time and explained him to service I was looking for. He told me their minimum weight requirement is 1000 lbs, what is usually the weight of 1 Bedroom. I'm not quite sure if the stuff I plan on shipping meets their minimum weight requirement. Guess I will have to way the stuff that I plan on shipping and see where we stand. But regardless of that he couldn't give me quote, as they require a pre-move survey in order to request a quote from the freight carrier. United Van Lines will contact me in the next few days to set up an appointment for a pre-move survey.
After that I gave Schumacher Cargo a call. I had already a ballpark estimate of $ 1.600 from them. I asked him right away why their quote is so much less then the quote of their co-competitors. Turns out that most companies charge you for a minimum of 200 cubic feet, while Schumacher charges for a minimum of 100 cubic feet. So I asked him to email me a Binding Quote. A couple of hours later I had that quote and it's pretty much the same as all the other quotes, except that's it about $ 1.000 cheaper. This quote is good till the end of June. Until then I will have to decide if I want to lock the quote or if I request from all the carriers a new quote.
All in all it has been quite a productive day!
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Shipping Quotes Update
The first thing I did today was to call DHL. Should be something easy and straight forward. Well, at least sorta. First of all you've gotta love an automated phone system, that needs several attempts to get to where you actually wanna go. Finally you reach the department that should actually be able to handle your request. Well, not so quick! There they told me that they couldn't help me, but they handed me over to another department that will be able to assist me with a shipping quote. This particular department told me, that they're only doing Business-to-Business (the same as Fedex and UPS Freight)...but they could give me the number of a shipping company that does deal with private customers. So I called that company, just to find out that they only do business with private customers, if you want to ship full containers. Since I only plan on shipping about 1000 lbs, well that didn't help me either.
Next gave Crown Relocation Services a call. Got a hold of the right representative right away. Well I already knew that they can't give me a quote right away, as they insist on doing a Pre-Move Survey before emailing the Binding Quote. So I set up an appointment, and the earliest they can do the survey is June 15th.
Next I filled out the Inventory Request, that I had gotten from Guardian Cargo. Filled out all the stuff that is going to be shipped. I fill out some additional info about self-packing and that I don't need any warehouse storage and then I submitted the online form. I thought I was done with that. Well,not so quick. A couple of minutes later I get and email from Guardian. I thought that this would be way to quick to be a definitive quote. So I took a look at the email. Turns out it is the same auto-responder email that I got a couple of days ago. The be honest that doesn't particularly inspire confidence in the services of that company.
Finally I gave Allied Van Lines a call to clear up the $ 1.000 difference between the binding shipping quote and the ballpark estimate. Turns out that the formula Shipping Costs = 1 $/lbs. non longer applies. Apparently currently the fuel surcharge and the place on container ships is at premium. For now the $ 2.700 shipping quote is right and binding for them for the next 30 days. After that they would have to request a new quote anyways. In addition to that they can't give me an exact delivery date. The best they can give me is a time frame, somewhere from 55 to 95 days (not that that really would matter to me). If I were to choose them as shipping company I would have to request a new quote at the beginning of July anyway.
Evidently my personal shipping estimate of about $ 2.500 was pretty much right on!!
Next gave Crown Relocation Services a call. Got a hold of the right representative right away. Well I already knew that they can't give me a quote right away, as they insist on doing a Pre-Move Survey before emailing the Binding Quote. So I set up an appointment, and the earliest they can do the survey is June 15th.
Next I filled out the Inventory Request, that I had gotten from Guardian Cargo. Filled out all the stuff that is going to be shipped. I fill out some additional info about self-packing and that I don't need any warehouse storage and then I submitted the online form. I thought I was done with that. Well,not so quick. A couple of minutes later I get and email from Guardian. I thought that this would be way to quick to be a definitive quote. So I took a look at the email. Turns out it is the same auto-responder email that I got a couple of days ago. The be honest that doesn't particularly inspire confidence in the services of that company.
Finally I gave Allied Van Lines a call to clear up the $ 1.000 difference between the binding shipping quote and the ballpark estimate. Turns out that the formula Shipping Costs = 1 $/lbs. non longer applies. Apparently currently the fuel surcharge and the place on container ships is at premium. For now the $ 2.700 shipping quote is right and binding for them for the next 30 days. After that they would have to request a new quote anyways. In addition to that they can't give me an exact delivery date. The best they can give me is a time frame, somewhere from 55 to 95 days (not that that really would matter to me). If I were to choose them as shipping company I would have to request a new quote at the beginning of July anyway.
Evidently my personal shipping estimate of about $ 2.500 was pretty much right on!!
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