One of my favorite places to go since I've moved to Tacoma is Infinite Soups (their website = not so good). Its a little shop (takeout only) by Wright Park. They make a BUNCH of soups every morning (probably like 15+) and they will let you try every single one before you choose! The staff is always very friendly, and they are always playing old rock music on their record player. Their prices are very low (about $2-$7 depending on the size of container) and the soup is awesome. I'd never been that enthusiastic about soup, but this is good. They have such a huge variety (vegan, vegetarian, cream based, broth based, etc). The only cons are that there's no place to eat the soup (walk to the park?), they only take cash/check (no credit/debit), and you have to make up your mind! Oh, and if you go later in the evening (they close at 7) they sometimes run out of my favorite soups.

LINK to google map of Infinite Soups

Some soups: potato green chili cheddar, poblano potato (my favorite), italian sausage and tortellini, tomato basil, moroccan lentil.... it goes on and on!

My locksmith story got posted on consumerist.com. If you haven't been on the site, it's awesome. I've been reading it for over a year, and I've definitely learned a lot. A lot of the readers gave good advice (call the police- the locksmith will either leave or do the work for the quoted price, call AAA and buy membership to use, have boyfriend look up how to break into car, etc). I think I was just way to stressed out by that time to think of these things :D I thought it was quite interesting- someone posted a link to the consumerist article on my original post about the locksmith... not sure if they realized I was the same person or not..... I saw the comment before I had been on the consumerist site today.

Here is a link to the article. So far (thursday pm) there have been almost 10,700 views!

UPDATE: as of Tuesday, almost 30,000 page views and six pages of comments! Hopefully i helped someone!

So, I got a couple questions about my hair last week. I thought I'd explain. So, the lady who does my hair is hilarious and awesome and I love her. She cut my hair like a little over a week ago. It was good. I had her "touch up" my highlights a couple days later. I had gotten sort of caramel colored highlights in my hair during the summer, and they were pretty grown out. She did them the first time and I was really happy. They were bold and bright for the summer. I just wanted her to add some to cover up my roots.
The highlights turned out BLONDE. Not toffee, BLONDE. On my almost black hair. Also, there were too many- like the entire top layer of my hair. I was like, oh well maybe if I wait a few days I will get used to it and like them. No such luck. Highlights were Saturday, and I fixed my hair Monday night. I asked all my female relatives what to do, and they suggested using a little bit darker dye to fix it. I just got some semi-permanent medium brown hair dye and put it all over (it didn't change the color of my dark hair). Ah! Relief! Hair was toned down and much better better for this time of year.
I know I probably should have told the hair lady to fix it, but I didn't want to wait a few days for an appointment, and I didn't want to hurt her feelings. I'm a big pushover, and I don't like complaining. I'd rather deal with it myself. It's uncomfortable, and I'm not a fan of confrontation. However, I am working on standing up for myself (see locksmith post below!). Yay for being brave!

Since David and I moved to Tacoma (about a year and a half ago) we've really enjoyed the city.  We both grew up in extremely rural areas, and were happy to find that almost everything we need is within walking distance.  We've enjoyed the arts fairs, the farmer's market, galleries, museums, restaurants so much!  Anyways, when we do things with Tacoma friends, they're always like. "wow! how did you guys find this!?" so I've decided that I will start writing restaurant/gallery/etc reviews, and hopefully I can mess with blogger so that people will see them when they search for information.  If anyone has any suggestions of neat things in Tacoma, let me know! I have a running list... 

So, thanks to those of you in my TINST207 class who asked about my ordeal :D I appreciate your concern.  Anyways, I went home and was still sort of mad, so I went and got my brows waxed (it was a nice pick-me-up. I hadn't had it done in forevor) and then went home and had some of my mom's homemade lasagna and apple crisp.  I must admit I'm feeling much better now.  

So I had a fun Monday. David and I woke up late, and we both rushed to get ready to leave in the morning. I didn't have time to make lunch. I get to class, and my classes go okay, so when that is over, I head to work. I always stop at the post office to grab the mail on the way there, then head to the bank to drop off a deposit before I go to the office. I get back to my car and can't find my keys. I check the parking lot, store, bank, pockets, and begin to freak out. Finally, I realize I locked my keys in my car- they are sitting in the ignition. This is at about 4:15 pm. I call David, who is on his way home from work. He looks for my extra key when he gets home but has no luck- we moved not long ago and the keys are probably in a box somewhere. My dad and sister come with extra keys (none of which were the one I left with them when I moved out of my parents house). I am getting frantic. It is cold.

My dad tries to break into my car. No luck. I did this before and my car is impossible to open with a slim-jim. I call a couple locksmiths cause I'm not confident a tow-truck driver can get into my car. I find a nearby locksmith who says he can be there in 25 mins. It's around 7:15 and I'm FREAKING out. I haven't eaten since noon. My dad was nice enough to stay with me and wait. The locksmith says it will be $39.99 + about $19 labor. I say "great" and tell him what kind of car I have and where it is stuck.

The "locksmith" arrives over an hour later. It looks a little shady- the guy is in his own personal car and was really late. I'm really frustrated and tired and out of patience by then. He gets out of his car and basically says "OOOHHH! This is a FOCUS!?! This is a VERY hard car to get into! I might be able to do it, might not, but it's gonna be $39.99 + $125 labor! $177 after tax. If you don't want me to do it, you have to at least pay me the $39.99 service call. He is really intimidating and rude. He has my driver's license already. THIS IS COERCION/EXTORTION/WHATEVER YOU WANT TO CALL IT. He insists he is being nice and that he could show us invoices of people who paid $265 to get into their cars. I'm in tears. It's almost nine. My dad argues with the guy for awhile and then decides f*** it, just do it. I'm pissed. He finally gets into my car, and I pay him. He doesn't even check to make sure that the car is mine. He refuses to give me the address of the business, a business card, or anything that identifies the business he is with. He has no stationary or invoices or anything to link him to a legitimate business. I feel really weird giving him my credit card- it all seems way too shady. I drive home, so mad I can hardly think. I felt so taken advantage of- he held me hostage.

I woke up Tuesday morning, even more pissed off. I missed an entire day of work over this bulls*** (at least my boss was nice about it!). I go out to my car to drive to work and notice that the door frame is bent up. Guess I didn't notice it when it was dark and I WAS SEETHING WITH ANGER. I called up the locksmith to complain. I was glad I had written down how I found them (using 411), because it seemed as if the locksmith who came out was trying to keep me from contacting him again. He knew we were pissed. Anyways, I nicely told the dispatcher/manager that I wanted a partial refund, due to the lateness, lies, and especially the damage to my car. He tried to say that they never saw me the night before. I said, "ok, well I wrote down the license # of the guy and a description. I will just cancel the credit card and give the information to the cops." He suddenly remembered me! However, he would not acknowledge the damage to my car, let alone the lying/bad customer service. He would not even consider a partial refund, so I told him I was canceling the card and initiate a charge-back with my credit card company. I also told him I would contact the BBB, attorney general, etc about his business practices.

I called my bank to cancel my card and thankfully, they were totally on my side. I have to wait a day or two for the charge to finish posting, and then there will be a charge-back. Anyways, the moral of the story is to get a definitive quote from the locksmith. Refuse to pay anymore. Maybe just don't lock your keys in your car!!! If you don't have spares, get some made for $5 at the store, and give them to your friends and family, so they can help you out when you need it. I called some more locksmiths for definite quotes to see if I was charged a legit price. Everyone else charges $60-$80 flat. One locksmith told me he knew of an old woman who was forced to pay $200 to get into her car. When you're locked out, and you can't google the business or check with the BBB, it really puts you at a disadvantage. I was vulnerable and they took advantage of me. Another moral: pay with credit cards, as they offer a lot more protection than debit cards.

From looking around on the net, it seems this is a common scam. There are stories of people whose keys are held hostage until they pay the inflated fee. There are dozens of complaints online, and supposedly these companies use many different names and phone numbers to avoid being held accountable. I shudder to think what the guy would have done if my dad hadn't been there with me. Anyways, at least they will end up paying me back what they charged me, plus some (charge-backs penalize the merchant), when I would have been happy with an apology for the damage and refund for the amount over the initial quote.

Hopefully, someone out there will learn from what happened to me ( I promise I'm calmed down now :).

So, since I've started the blog, I've gotten quite a few funny looks and questions about my blogging name. T-Town-Tart. "What does it mean?" "Why did you pick that?" "That's a weird screen name..." I thought the meaning of my screen name was fairly obvious, and sort of clever (alliteration anyone? I love my literary devices). Anyways, I was messing around on the internet, and decided to google the word "tart." Here's what I got:

• A promiscuous woman or a woman who dresses in a sexually provocative way, or a prostitute. See also Tart with a heart. (Wikipedia)
• 1 : agreeably sharp or acid to the taste- tart apple. 2: marked by a biting acrimonious or cutting quality. (Merriam-Webster)
• Tart: (Dictionary.com)
• a small pie filled with cooked fruit or other sweetened preparation, usually having no top crust.
• a covered pie containing fruit or the like.
• Slang. a prostitute or promiscuous woman.
• tart up, Slang. to adorn, dress, or decorate, esp. in a flamboyant manner: The old restaurant was tarted up to look like a Viennese café.
• And finally, from UrbanDictionary.com :
  
• A nubile young temptress, who dresses teasingly and provocatively, as in "Man, look at that mini-skirt and those knee-high boots! What a tart!"
• Oh, and this picture which I thought was hilarious:
  

So, everyone knows I am an animal lover. I volunteer for rescue, grew up showing dogs, etc. I've even gotten funny looks for the way I treat/talk about animals. David rolls his eyes every time he sees me looking at lolcats and loldogs. I can't help it. I love animals and all their silly behavior, and I like taking a break from all the depressing news so that I can smile at this stuff. Anyways, I found this website/blog last week, and I've been checking it every day since then. I give you dogs, upside-down for your viewing pleasure. Come on... You know you think it's funny :)

In class we talked about shopping online. Everyone in the class had bought things online. I think this is a generational thing. I've bought all sorts of things online, but my dad grumbles every time he or my mom need to use a credit card online. He's always worried someone will steal his identity, even from sites he's used in the past. My mom can barely check her email, so I don't even think that online shopping or security even enter her mind. I'm excited at the range of things I can order, most of which I couldn't get by shopping nearby. I feel like hanging out with my boyfriend, David, has given me even more of an appreciation/love for technology than I had before.

I, unlike my dad, have bought all kinds of crap online. I've bought tech gadgets/accessories, books, food, toys, shoes, etc. I LOVE Zappos and their free overnight shoe shipping. I think it is amazing to see a pair of shoes I like at noon on Monday, and have them in the office when I get there he next morning... Almost like magic. I also love that they offer free returns and re-shipping (overnight) if the shoes don't fit. I've used many online merchants to purchase all sorts of things and never had a problem. I was apprehensive (like my dad) at first, but I got over it real quick when I realized it was better than going out to shop. I can see 100 different types of the item I want, and read what people who have used them say. There are no lines and crowds of people, and the variety and prices are usually better. I did probably 1/2-2/3 of my Christmas shopping online last year, and I plan to do the same this year.

I don't do Ebay (I have bought and sold on craigslist though!) because I don't trust other people and their descriptions of items, etc. I also don't like PayPal- I've heard of lots of people having problems with them, losing money, and not being able to contact customer service. I am aware of the small, shady internet merchants, and I usually read reviews of a merchant before I buy from them. Also, I normally stick to merchants I have had good luck with in the past. I've never bought anything I'd want to try first (like a car) online, and I won't buy clothes or shoes unless they have free returns. I don't order groceries online (Safeway does free deliveries) because I don't really do grocery lists- I just shop.

Maybe people my age just use the internet differently? Anytime David and I have a question, we look it up real quick. We google the names of restaurants to get reviews before we go. We read blogs instead of magazines. We research the pros, cons, and prices of products we plan to buy (even if we're not going to order them online). We read reviews of books, movies, recipes, and tv shows online. My boss (who is 26 I think) and her dad (the owner of the business I work for) don't even consider using the internet in these ways. They're always surprised that I use the internet to pick out things for the office, and shocked when I "fix" the computers in the office by looking for people with the same problems online. Since I use technology so much differently than people who are ten or fifteen years older than me, it makes me wonder how my (future) children will use it, and whether or not I will be able to keep up.

So I left Wednesday's TINST207 class horrified at the idea that my age, phone number, address, and other identifying information was on the internet for everybody to see. I tried searching different combinations of my name (with middle initial, without, with quotation marks, etc) and was relieved to find that there isn't much information about me. I tried Google, MSN, and Yahoo, as well as the UW site cause I was curious. Fortunately (probably because I am 20 and don't have home loan history/public records stuff, I am not on intelius.com. It sort of outraged me to think that they can post all that stuff online, and anyone willing to pay for a report could have some very personal information about me or even show up at my house.

Some of what I found was hilarious. There were a bunch of mentions of my name related to dog show stuff. This makes sense as I have owned and co-owned a few dogs, as well as participated in loads of AKC dog shows (see picture of Bastian, RIP, my first show dog and true love :)). I also found my Facebook page (which I haven't checked in probably a year). I was surprised not to find anything myspace related. The best thing I found, however, was this. I was in a circus group that performed all over the place. The newspaper and tv station came out to interview us. I was on the morning news, eight years old, in a neon colored spandex body suit, performing my trapeze routine. Crazy, I know. Good to think that since it happened before the Seattle PI went on the internet, there are no picture records of this event online. I do have the fuzzy VCR recording my parents made somewhere though. I was also a little relieved to see that there were no records of my and my ballroom dancing and sequin days.

I understand that privacy is important, and it really bothers me that there is information about me out there which I cannot really get rid of. It also bothers me that as long as the internet exists in its current form, there will be more and more personal details added. Not sure what to do about this- its sort of like telemarketing. I hate it but there's not really anything I can do that will get it to stop completely. I will stop one site, and two more will pop up.... like a leaky boat or the the moles in my parents yard that drive my dad nuts.

In my tech class we talked about the recent layoffs at the Tacoma News Tribune and other local newspapers. It brought to mind the failure of the King County Journal newspapers in early 2007. The group of small community newspapers (I think there were three papers they published?). Their circulation had fallen, and yet a year or two before they made the decision to build a huge in Kent, WA. Everyone wondered why, when newspapers were not doing well, a newspaper company would spend so much money on a new building. Sure enough, a little bit later they went under.

Personally, I think that unless newspapers find some way to make themselves relevant, on the web or otherwise, they will go under. I had a subscription to the Seattle Times earlier this year, and I just never got around to it. The only paper I usually read was the Sunday edition, and even then, I never got through the whole thing. I continued to get my news online while having the subscription. The paper got delivered to the community foyer in the apartment building and my neighbors stole my paper one too many times. I canceled. The called me a couple times a day, despite requests not to, until I got fed up and angrily called them. Their customer service was enough to make me not want to subscribe again.

Another reason I think that newspapers will adapt or go under is the issue of money. Why would I want to pay for the news I read, when I can get it online from blogs and the local news channel websites? Why would I pay money to post something in the classified ads when I can post to something better (CraigsList) for free? It makes the newspaper subscription seem even more unimportant. I don't know how the print media companies can adapt, other than make good websites (I hate when sites are disorganized and poorly built!) and possibly lower the prices of their product.

One cool thing that I've found online, that I think could help print media, is MagHound. MagHound is a website that is sort of like NetFlix but for magazines. You pay a low fee ($4.95 for two mags/month I think- it goes up depending on how many you want). There are a few weekly mags that are "premium" and you have to pay $1.50 extra/month. You can get a bunch of magazines (they add more every week! and you don't have to send them back) and you can switch around which mags you get each month. I like to read a variety of magazines while I'm at the gym, but I like to mix it up and they can get expensive (People is like $5!). They have a great variety of cooking, news, gossip, health, etc mags. I think this is a business model that can work, and so far I like it a lot. I pay like $10/month for 5 subscriptions (11 magazines! 2 mags are every week, the other three are once per month).

The only thing that scares me about getting news online is credibility. The EPIC movie said something along the lines of "the news people get is the news they want to hear." I worry that with people getting news from opinion blogs, that we lose some of the facts. I don't know how much journalistic integrity is involved with print media right now, but I know that tv can be really bad and the internet can be worse. Think of the "Obama is a MUSLIM!" rumors that were spread by blogs on the internet... I think this aspect of the internet could get very scary.

David and I were talking about the whole trickle down economic philosophy and he described it in a way that I thought was so smart. He said it was like sticking a piece of gum on a brick wall and then trying to pull it off. You grab a piece and it stretches and sort of comes off but the majority stays, stuck on the wall (to the rich people).

Watching the VP debate at the moment.... She just keeps kissing his ASS!!! Sarah Palin scares the hell out of me (and her accent is annoying). I really hope that women aren't fooled into voting for her because she is a woman. David and I have been talking about this almost everyday, and it gets me sooo wound up! She is not a feminist and she does not support women's rights. Abortion is a controversial issue, but what about equal pay for equal work? The right to marry whomever you love is an inherent human right that people deserve. People are not going to marry farm animals! It's not a slippery slope!!! Her and McCain will set us back.

Who was it that said something like "when fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in a flag and wearing a cross?" I keep thinking of this and the presidential election because I just finished reading The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. I read it all in one day! It was soo good. It is kind of a dystopia, 1894/Brave New World sort of book. In it, women are demoted to pieces of property owned by their husbands. The religious right has taken over and their is a fertility crisis. Women who oppose the new regime are taken to a school to be re-educated. They become "Handmaids," women who are sent to couples deemed morally worthy. They are to be impregnated by the husbands, then their babies are taken away. All written words are taken away, even on storefronts, because women are not allowed to read, and they definitely aren't allowed around anything that could be dangerous because so many are killing themselves. It was a very interesting, scary book. Turns out that Atwood is a famous feminist and the book is well-known. You should read it.

The scary thing: this is all triggered by tightened government (caused by some Islamic extremists), a failure of the banks, and a war.

Everybody! VOTE! Make your voice heard. Can you handle 4 more years of "nu-cule-er"!?!?!?!