Friday 24 February 2006

Pic of the day: To bend to fate but not to break, the lesson of winter.

Killed bills?

One thing I had forgotten about moving is the disappearing bills. Even though I went out of my way to make sure I had paid all bills before I moved, and redirected the mail before I even stopped looking in my old mailbox. (I have forgotten to take it down, though. I should really bring a screwdriver and remove it, unless someone else wants to claim it I guess. It is just tempting people to stuff advertising in it.)

Telenor had the good grace to send me a "reminder" (for which they want a fee as if they had spent a quarter of an hour on it rather than a quarter of a second). It is also kinda suspicious that I get a bill just a month after I paid an earlier bill of approximately (but not exactly) the same amount, since the invoice claims to cover like three months ahead.) Tele2 just sent me an automated call reminding me to pay within 3 days, which is no help since I don't have the original invoice and don't know the amount. I should just quit Tele2. They were great back when i called Germany from time to time, much cheaper. But now I don't call abroad, or even call at all. The couple minutes I spend calling during a year are usually just when I call in sick. I could use the mobile phone for that, or just send a mail. In fact, I do just send a mail when the DSL is not down, as it has been for 2 months now. Well, actually I don't think I have been home sick during those months. After I changed my food from fat to carbs, sick leaves have fallen from pretty much weekly to once in a blue moon. May it stay there for years to come! Light send it be so. I don't mind staying home, but even working is better than being sick.

Apart from the phone bills, though, I think I am pretty much on top of the bills.

***

If I had known that it would take 2 months to get Internet access again, I would have temporarily stopped subscribing to the online games, obviously. As it is, I had to edit my account info at NCSoft anyway. (That's the company that runs City of Heroes.) I pay monthly using credit card, but my credit card expires in march. So I have got a new credit card, which doesn't expire in some years. It also has a different number. There are a few places that have my old credit card on file, but only NCSoft has a monthly draw. (The Economist has a yearly draw, but I am sure they will contact me rather than let the subscription lapse.) Anyway, I had to first cancel all my subscriptions and then manually renew each one. So I took the opportunity to not renew my European City of Heroes presence. Since last fall or perhaps late summer I have played almost exclusively on the American server "Justice". I guess I don't need to pay for a game I don't play, not in the long run.

Not that I have any idea how to find time for CoH at all anymore. My days are already packed. I've even reverted to my regular sleeping hours, from 2-3 AM till 8-8.30 AM. Evidently my brain thinks it has memorized my new environment by now. There is something to that, as I hardly ever run into the lamps anymore. Luckily I never ran into them hard enough to incur any new bills, not even medical ones... Long may it last.