Will Bridges

Hello,
    I'm writing to inform you I will no longer be shopping at Circuit City any more. I will be driving up the road to go to Best Buy. I've been a Circuit City customer for years and have come to the sad conclusion that you do not care about your customers that much. Let me inform you why I have made this decision.
   At around 5:30pm on August 22nd I visited a Circuit City in Rivergate, TN, outside of Nashville. I was stopping in on my weekly trip in to the store to look for some new music, some software and browse your wonderful selection of items. Before I went in the store I parked 4 rows from the front of the store. I rolled up my windows, locked my door and placed my laptop case on the floor board of the passenger side of my car. I felt relatively safe in this area and figured I would only be in the store at tops 20 minutes. I went in the store and browsed for a while and ended up buying a few small items. When I left the store I walked out to find my passenger side window was broken and my $1200 laptop had been stolen with much of my business information. I'm the CEO of a local software development company. I was pretty confused. So, I asked one of the clerks if there were any cameras outside. He said, "No, there are plenty inside but none outside.". He was generally not very helpful and only aided me with a phone to call the police. I'm wondering if it is commonplace to have a large electronics store and not have one single camera outside to protect your customers. So, after I had to wait 3 hours for the Nashville Metro Police to show up so I could file a report (missing an important meeting that evening) I drove up the road to Best Buy. I found that Best Buy has one omni-directional camera watching their parking lot.
   So, it seems had I been shopping for my goods at Best Buy I would have been at least somewhat protected. I think it is absolutely absurd you can't put one camera outside to protect your customers. Not only will I not shop at Circuit City again, I will tell every person I know about this and inform them they should make the same decision. Also, I will make mention of this in my blog as well as use any other route I can employ to deter others from making the same mistake. I am aware this is partially my fault for not putting my laptop in the trunk or carrying it in the store. But, this was broad daylight, four rows from the entrance to your building. It's just not right to not have a camera or security patroling the area when seemingly every other large store in the area does. I will forward a copy of this in writing to your corporate office and deliver a copy to the store manager.

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So, as I said in a previous post I got my laptop from Aarons and it got stolen out of my car. It had no insurance on it. And yes, I rent to own cause my credit sucks… oh well. At first Aarons told me there was nothing they could do about it. I was very upset about that. So, I called corporate offices and talked to somebody higher on the food chain. I told them I had been a customer for 2 years (I have various other items from Aarons). He said they would work with me. So, I got a call back yesterday saying they would cut the price in half. I had already made 3 payments because I had the lapop for 3 months. I intended to pay it off this month so I had very little interest. But, the payments are 200 a month for 12 months, so there's no way I was going the whole term to pay that much for a laptop. Basically, they said if I make another 3 payments or pay $600 they will write it off. Well, not quite as good a deductible but it works for me. I got three months use out of it and the total cost will be around $1200. Yes, sad… but hey, business is good I'll get another laptop next month. I think I might just pay up front and get a Mac laptop this time. We'll see.

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About 2 months ago I got a new laptop. A pretty nice one at that. The first thing I did was uninstall Windows Vista and install Ubuntu Linux. I was happy about this because I haven't had such a nice laptop in some time.

Sadly, last week my laptop was stolen out of my car. Someone broke my passenger side window and took the case with laptop inside out of my car and left. You're going to say "Damn Will, why'd you leave the laptop in your car?". Well, I was only 4 rows from the door of circuit city, it was broad day light, I was only gone for 15 minutes and I had the laptop bag on the floor board. I didn't think anyone would notice it. But, someone must have been watching for that. Oh, a special thanks to the Rivergate Circuit City, who has no cameras outside but has 20,000 inside the store. Another special thanks to the Nashville Police Department, who had me waiting for them for 3 and 1/2 hours in one of the hottest Augusts in Nashville's history so I could file a police report. 

So, I actually got the laptop on rent to own through Aarons. I like Aarons… since I have terrible credit. But, also they have really nice things and they don't jack up the price really high. They also charge no interest for the first 90 days. So, if you pay off your stuff in 90 days you don't pay any interest. Great place. But, like I was saying… I was renting to own the laptop from there. They don't have or offer insurance on theft. Great… So, now I will probably have to pay like $1,200 to Aarons for a laptop that someone else has. Though, I did call Aarons corporate office and they said they may be able to lower the cost for me due to the cicumstances. More on that later. If anyone sees someone with a nice, new HP laptop with a 17 inch screen and it's running Ubuntu… punch them in the face and then email me.  

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A guy I know from one of our clients named John threw a Cinco de Mayo party this Saturday. It was quite impressive I must say. They brewed their own beer, they had 2 bands, and food. I brought a couple neighbors, some tequila, and my girlfriend. We got there late because Yendis makes us late for everything. She says it’s my fault because I took her to go pick out beer and that took an hour and a half out of the day but I really think we could have been there before that. If it was the first time we were late for anything then I wouldn’t care that much but come on… it started at 6pm. I wanted to leave at 7pm and we didn’t leave till almost 8:45pm. Wow!

Anyways, I ain’t mad at her. Just would like to get her to be more on time for things. So, we got to the party late and started thowin back drinks, of course. Derek & Leslie came to the party too. It seemed like everybody had a good time. The music was decent and about 50+ people were there when we got there. A good turn out. It’s the first real party I’ve been to since I came to Nashville, which is a bit sad but hey… We really don’t get to hang out with too many people down here and you have to meet people to have or go to parties. Neither Yendis nor I have made any close friends. We did meet a few of our neighbors recently though. They are really cool and I think we might get some good friends out of it. I’ve never had that difficult of a time making friends in any city except Nashville. I’m not sure why the ‘ville is different because I really like the city. It just seems hard to get a circle of friends.

Anyways, we had a great time this cinco de mayo and I’m still tired but work awaits… so back to it.

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Yendis and I had a great time at this little retreat in Smithville, TN called Evins Mill. It was great. The food was gormet and the people were wonderful. Let me describe the experience a bit.

First, we drove about an hour from Nashville to Smithville. It’s small and kinda in the middle of what appears to be nowhere. We drove up this large hill that reveals a mill and a very old log built structure that houses the main office, the kitchen and the central hub for the retreat. We were greeted by the cook, who quicly took his apron off and asked if we needed any luggage taken to the room. We didn’t because we brought very little in the way of stuff to the retreat. It was a couple hours after lunch but they had our lunches prepared so we grabbed our lunches and the cook/bellboy showed us to our room which was quite nice for the middle of nowhere. It didn’t have a phone but we didn’t need one because I got cell reception (thanks Cingular). The room had a large vaulted ceiling, a view of the water pouring over the mill’s dam and a large and comfortable king sized bed. We ate our lunches and got ready for that evening’s four course dinner. Lunch was okaybut it was a boxed lunch so you could tell it had been in the fridge a while. We were told about the Carmac Falls (a 90 foot waterfall) which was about a 30 minute walk from the main lodge but we didn’t want to attempt it because of the rain and cold.

Anyways, we finally got ready for dinner and went to the main lodge. The dinner started with a Mushroom Strudel as a small appatizer. I nibbled on that for a while and they brought out some rolls for Yendis (she doesn’t eat mushrooms, her loss!). We chatted for a while amoungst the candle light and the wood/gas open fireplace. It was a very romantic scene. Only three couples were there for dinner. We chatted with one of the other couples while we relaxed. Then a soup came out that was ‘Ginger Carrot and Cocconut Milk’. Yes, it sounds strange but it was very delicious. After the soup came a wonderful fresh salad with bits of blue cheese and rasberry vingarette dressing. Then, finally the main course. They offered a choice of Hawiian Sea Bass, Ethiopian Coffee cooked Beef Tenderloin. Yendis had the tenderloin and I had the sea bass. Both were delicious. After dinner we had some fudge brownie cake of some kind that was very good. This was all included in the stay. They even gave Yendis an extra piece of cake!

The portions were just good enough to fill and not to overfill. So, after eating we talked with the waitress a while and drank a couple beers on the couch in front of the fireplace. After a couple hours we decided to go to the mill (which they turned in to a game room and conference center). We played pool, ping pong and listened to the radio till late in to the night. We then went back to the room and…. hung out… (that’s all you need to know) till much later in the night. We watched a movie (they had movies in the main lodge you could take to your room) and went to sleep. In the morning (kinda, 11am) we woke up and got dressed to go to the main lodge. We missed breakfast, but no worries, the cook still made us a fresh breakfast at 11:30am! We talked over breakfast (which was delicious) and then went back to the mill to play some more games. Yendis is much better than me at ping pong but I beat her a lot at pool so it kinda makes up for it. Anyways, we didn’t leave till about 3pm and nobody hastled us to hurry up and go. It was great! Will definately return. The price was about $250 a night with everything included.

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I haven’t written in my blog in a long time. I know, it’s a terrible thing. I went from almost every day to gaps of a week or more. So, I’m going to talk about several things in this entry to go over what’s happened in the past couple weeks.

First of all, January 14th was my birthday. We went to a club called ‘Love’ in DC. It had 4 levels. One of those super clubs. It was really great. Yendis made us late because she had a last minute change of mind about her outufit but it still turned out great. Most of my friends didn’t come. In fact, a client of mine came to party with us. He came with his wife. We had a great time. The next day we went to the water front in DC and ate at an ‘all you can eat’ seafood place that was the best. We ate till we just couldn’t any more. Then, we left DC.

When I got back to Tennessee I was swamped with too much work. It’s been so bad I had to quit biding on projects. I incorporated my business the first week I was back. So, I am now the president of Bluepaw Enterprises Inc. I started using some international programmers to help me get some of my projects off of the table. Work has been hectic. I’m still trying to find a great programmer to partner up with.

Juhlyun has been doing good. He got weighed and measured a week ago. He is 27 inches long (which is in the 97th precentile for his age, wow!) and 15 pounds 6 ounces. I have a feeling he is going to be very tall when he grows up. He enjoys throwing his arms in the air and making all kinds of noises and sounds. He’s very attentive and has now started eating cereal and fruit instead of just milk. All organic foods of course.

I’ll do another post in a couple days. Till then, enjoy the week.

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I haven’t been writing in my blog much because I have been trying to finish up this never ending conversion from PERL to Ruby on Rails for my client. Though I am leaving tomorrow anyway and plan on launching the site this weekend. I can’t wait to get back to Nashville. I’m from Front Royal, Virginia but I can’t stay here for more than a couple weeks without realizing why I left and the strong desire to leave hits me. So, I’m getting ready for my 10 hour trip back to Nashville tomorrow, finally.

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Below are some pics of the party we had. It was more of a get together. A lot of people who said they were going to come couldn’t make it. But, we still had a blast, played some drinking games, talked about work, politics and just general discussion. I had a great time and would like to thank the people who did make it. Jackson from Jaxn.org made it but he had to leave early because his wife is pregnant and she was requesting some food. But, I know how that goes since I just had a son. A couple friends and neighbors made it as well. Craig and his date made. They met on e-Harmony but they seem to go good together so maybe that service works pretty well. Mike and Hannah made it. Then a couple of my neighbors came over. My girl was here. It turned out well. I think I should start making this a monthly thing just to let off some steam and celbrate all the success I have. So, that’s probably what I’m going to do. The turn out will get better as it goes on.

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We are having a small party here in Nashville tonight. It’s a good time for it. There is change in the air with the dems in controll of the congress. I just started working for myself again last month and the work is POURING in. I was worried about not having enough work and I’m about to have to start using my friends to overflow work because I have so much work. Also, I just had a son who turned two months. It’s truly a blessed day in my career, my new family, and in the country in general. So, what does that make it time to do? Yes, party, celebrate. Time for some cold ones and being surrounded by good friends. So, tonight is the night for celebration. I’ll post pictures. Everyone be good and praise the beauty of the complicated times we are in.

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I’m almost certain I registered to vote when I got my TN license. However, I went and stood an hour in line and found out I was not registered to vote. So, my opinion won’t count this election. I bet I won’t have the same problem next election. But, it does serve me right standing in line that long because I had plenty of time to get my status worked out and make for certain my vote counted. Hopfully, my discussions with everyone swayed a few people to vote for what’s right. But, the unfortunate truth is most people my age don’t vote.

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