Blogging for dummies

OK, so I admit it, I bid on and buy things on eBay. And I do not begrudge anyone making money on the stuff they sell. What I am just really SICK of is the almost criminal addition of handling charges to the shipping. Now, I know that boxes are not always free (however I get enough things shipped to me that I recycle the boxes for everything I ship out) and time to go to UPS and drop off the packages is worth something. But it is SO out of hand on eBay I want to scream. Take for example this auction...

$8.55 to ship a piece of paper? To ship it Parcel Post? (Isn't that a fancy name for Media Mail?) lets look at this.

It is a single sheet of card stock, folded once. it might fit in an envelope, however being "Rare" (another word that eBay has caused to loose all meaning.) it will probably ship (one would hope) in a padded envelope. Even with this the actual postage should not be more than $1.50 so given that, your looking at a 7.05 charge for a padded envelope ($.50) and the short walk to your mail box. (since it is USPS shipping they will take a padded envelope from your mail box). Does anyone else find this frustrating? I have seen crazy charges for shipping $35.00 for a less than 1 pound video game CD shipped media mail.

I guess I wouldn't be quite so angry if they would at least give you priority mail shipping for these crazy prices but to pay that much (and they offer no faster method on their auctions) and still have to wait weeks for it to show up should be a valid defense for manslaughter.

I on principle alone do not bid on any auction where this shipping is outragous, and I would hope the rest of the work catches on and does the same. I have seen honest auctions (such as one I received the other day) where a large lot of items are shipped for less than the piece of paper above.

In a rather vain attempt to lighten my mood, Indianna tried to aquire (for the Museum of course) the ancient and well worn Infocom Masterpieces CD from the evil and very overgrown DVD burner of Doom! He of course was sucessful but Belloq (returned from the dead) swooped in and stole it from him. Now I have to find another copy of it.. off to ebay...

I finally got the attack rat dog to sit still long enough to try and get some pictures of her. She is a 'Short Hair Standard Chihuahua' the reason that this is in quotes is that there is no 'Standard' or 'Toy' or 'Tea Cup' when it comes to Chihuahuas there is only Long hair and Short hair. all the Standard really means is that she is disqualified from competing because she weighs over 6 pounds. We love her anyway... 

The really odd thing about Missy (I tell everyone it's short for Miscreant, but in truth the kids named her Missy) and it seems all Chihuahuas is that they don't realize they are um, well, about the smallest dogs on the planet. She will bark at, growl at, and chase MUCH larger meaner dogs without a moments thought to eventually becomming a chew toy for them. It is really quite funny to watch her all puffed up and posing, barking through the (thankfully) closed screen door at (for example) the 125 pound Rot being walked past our house. All 10 (oversized) pounds of her solid and dead still with tension just begging the invading dog to try it just once...

so anyway, though (being the most active puppy I have ever seen) it is hard to get her to sit still long enough to take a decent photo I got what I could, and here they are...