Joe Levi presents Greener Living through Technology

Ever see this on your credit card statement: “VISA-WLI*RESERVATIONREW888-6885995 CT?” This is a “service” that’s free to sign up for… oh, and it only costs $5 to $9 per month after that.

We had a mysterious charge show up on our Visa statement the other day in the amount of $7 for something called Reservation Rewards. It’s nothing that my wife or I remember signing up for. Upon further digging we found that my wife had inadvertantly not UN-CHECKED an opt-in check box on the 1-800-Flowers website when she last ordered flowers for an out-of-state relative.

After having googled the phone number portion I came up with a very similar blog entry and comments, googling their name came up with this blog entry.

An inquiry to the Better Business Bureau (not that I support the BBB) resulted in a squeeky clean record. Hmmmmm….

We called Reservation Rewards, after they apologized and confirmed that they disclaimed everything in the frine print and explaining all the fabulous benefits that we were eligible for by signing up, they politely reversed all carges to our account and discontinued any further charges. They also closed our Reservation Rewards account (which we didn’t even know that we had!!).

So after we cancelled the credit card (actually a Visa check card), we’re beginning to feel a little bit safer. But take a lesson from us, caveat emptor.

Another spring break has come and gone, and my list of things to accomplish over the break was a bit more realistic than in years gone by, but not fully realized, much to my frustration, and that of my wife.

I tried putting up a wood fence for the first time in my life. I set most of my posts (some of them twice!), and have laid out the footer board. Now that the posts have set I’ve got a lot of cutting and toe-screwing on my plate. Then more $$ and more assembly. So far so good, but this task got trumped by others, so it’s yet another task that I’ve yet to finish.

One thing we did get done (that I got roped into) was repainting our sitting room. Wow. Natalie did a GREAT job picking out a color and a boarder. Jessica even got to paint some parts with a “little baby roller” which was just her size. Check that one off as done.

Re-doing the site using a CSS table-less structure was a task that didn’t get much attention. I did play around with some CSS2 and have some components to the site that got a lot of expirimentation done. Unfortunately, I have nothing to show for it on the website right now. My objective is to use W3C complaint CSS1 and CSS2 which works the way it’s supposed to in standards-compliant browsers such as Mozilla’s FireFox (formerly known as FireBird), yet still render eligantly and functionally, if not perfectly, by MSIE 6. I wish Microsoft would follow standards rather than trying to invent them.

The play-room still needs finishing off, no work done there, but a mental completion schedule is taking shape in my mind

I got a Pioneer AO7 DVD+-R/RW drive at long last. Now I can burn DVD’s of my episodes of Enterprise! Only 3 discs per season, versus 26! Yeah! I know that it’s not legal to mak copies of purchased “Hollywood” DVD’s, but until the DMCA is ammended to mandate that publishers replace damaged (or lost) discs within a 24 hour guaranteed turn-around period (of course upon proof of purchase (such as the pieces of the broken disc), I’ll be a criminal for applying the Fair Use clause of the Copyright Act of 1976 to copy-protected materials such as commercial DVDs. I hope the RIAA and Motion Picture Association lawyers don’t read this… It would be a shame to sue me and release a convicted murderer or rapist just to make room for the “true criminal.”

My buddy M^cKay has a blog entry about using Utah Power’s wind-farm as his primary source of power. Funny, he also mentions in a passing note a reference to installing a solar panel array on his roof…

I’ve been doing some research on just that. I’d love to install an array on my roof and be completely self-sufficient as far as electrical power is concerned. Presently the costs are prohibitive… but they’re coming down.

Since we’re talking about ideals here, I’d also like to put two big tanks about six feet under in my back yard, one to hold run-off/rain water, and the other to hold “gray-water.” I’d then water my lawn, flowers, and garden from these two sources before using any secondary water. Sure, you’d have to pump it out, and there would be an electrical need there, but a solar-powered pump might take care of that (especially if you have a low-pressure and/or drip-irrigation system set up).

I’m re-pulling a drip irrigation system for my flower beds this spring, and hopefully in the garden as well. That has yet to be seen, but I’m going to try.

I’d also like to trade in my 30.0 MPG Saturn SL2 for an ‘04 Toyta Prius which gets 60MPG City, 51MPG Highway (sticker).

If anyone wants to assist in either of these, go to any Horizon Credit Union branch and deposit any amount you feel appropriate into the “Joe Levi” account.