The Restless Mouse Company develops and operates websites peddling cool retro & fun trinkets at low cost, working out of a rundown old house outside of Marysville, Washington and trying to rub two coins together; cheerfully living lives of quiet desperation.
As my brother says, we're not here for a long time, we must be here for a good time.
Keep those CARDS AND LETTERS coming in! Or at least drop us a line via email
I clicked on the link to a video about the untimely and sad death of Billy Mays, as usual it was preceded by a commercial.
At first I was offended by that, is nothing sacred? But then I realized how totally and completely appropriate it was. I only wish it was for something that made me want to run to the phone and order it. I may never feel that way again.
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Awww... Smile! It's Father's Day! I got Sims 3 from number one son... now trying to set it up to play YouTube videos on the sims TV sets...
By the way, this is Louis Prima, not Armstrong.
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We’ve been gradually adding quantity discounts at ThatRestlessMouse.com – My goal was to finish adding all the items to the new “virtual cash register” software, THAT is a big job.
It doesn’t help productivity that I got “Sims 3” for Father’s Day. Those sims are harsh taskmasters, but at least they can somewhat take care of themselves in this version.
In earlier versions of that SIMS series, there would be situations where for some reason the sim would refuse to use the facilities, and would pee in the hall. Good thing they haven’t invented stink-o-vision yet.
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I haven’t gotten much time to sit and watch TV lately, but what I have seen of the new Verizon Vios service on the TV side, I’m loving it. It blows cable out of the water.
Got a letter from Comcast today, informing me that Verizon is selling it’s fiber optic and telephone land line operations, or some portion thereof, to Frontier communications.
This smells like desperation. Should I be concerned? I remember when Verizon bought our phone line from GTE, nothing bad happened then.
I suppose it might put a few people off of switching to Verizon’s Vios from Comcast, especially with the unfortunate name of the new provider. Frontier? Are they going to come down main street with guns blazing, “This here Internet ain’t big enough for the both of us!”. Are they going to censor my Internet service? “We won’t be havin’ you lookin’ at no dadblame dance-hall girls on our range! ‘specially the ones of questionable virtue!”
Anyhow, my contract still saves me about $230 total over the first year, including the $100 visa card I had better actually get. The phone has free LD, voice mail, Caller ID, etc. The internet is much faster. The TV has channels galore, including TV land, which we had been pining for. So yeah, so far, I recommend the switch. We will see what happens when those rascals from Frontier ride into town.
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I got to thinking, boy, it’s a real pain in the patootie to run two website, and we are always running into inventory related problems because of it. Also, I am tired of looking at this stupid computer monitor.
So I set up quantity discounts at ThatRestlessMouse.com, and we will be closing the NoveltyTradingPost.com site as soon as I get those discounts punched in.
So if you see discounts on some items but not on others, that’s why; I am also working a lot of overtime at my “drudgery” job, and nobody else around here wants to give the website any love, so it will take maybe a few weeks.
The goal is to be ever-so-slightly cheaper than the “competition” on almost every item. (Let’s not get carried away!)
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6/11/09 We had a guy from Verizon come out today and set us up with Telephone, TV and Internet via Fiber Optics. We all agree, he looks, sounds, and acts exactly like Charlie Sheen. Maybe a slightly less cheerful version of Charlie Sheen, but he has a sort of crappy job.
Anyway, I will probably blog a series of comments about this. I usually try to knock something out right before I leave for my night job, and of course it ends up looking sort of truncated because I’m always running late. It’s a passive-aggressive thang.
So, tip #1 for those installing Fios; immediately set up a “purchase password” under the “Parental Controls” menu, even if you live alone. Charlie says it’s easy to accidentally rent a movie otherwise.
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I am still planning to get my all of my TV signal over the Internet, as stated earlier here.
In fact, I unplugged the bedroom TV’s “digital conversion box” that Comcast sent me, (It seems to be defective) and we get all of our TV in that room from DVDs, VHS tapes, or Internet sources, mainly the streaming movies that Netflix offers.
Those streaming movies are great, because if you stop and go do something else, even if you shut down the computer, when you come back to the Netflix page, you can start exactly where you left off, or optionally do it the old way, by scene selection.
But that’s not what I came here to talk about. We have signed up with Verizon fiber optic (Fios) service for telephone, TV signal (similar to basic cable) and Internet (basically faster broadband).
I wish I had done more research, I just read where some guy insisted that they leave the copper wire for the old POTS phone service, and Verizon capitulated.
My plan was to get rid of the cell phone since the fiber-optic phone includes free long distance, but there’s a catch; if the power goes out, you only have 8 hours or so of phone service. (Probably less if there is a teenage girl in the house!) So I guess we should keep at least one cell phone around. We get very good coverage here.
I am obligated to this setup for about one year, maybe I will switch to a cable modem and no TV service then. (or at least threaten to)
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I got a call from my “night job” employer’s “wellness program” the other day.
I had never called their dial-a-nurse thing nor had I had any other contact with them. Then they called me out of the blue, (on a Sunday!) – Wanted to know if I had questions about Diabetes or any other health issues.
Naturally, I was all "I'm not interested" but somehow we got to talking and I did get some questions answered, but later I started getting a little paranoid about it.
All that is supposed to be between me and my doctor's janitor (I never get to see the actual Dr., it will be no surprise if I find he died in a Turkish prison in 2002) - Whatever happened to HIPPA (patient privacy) laws? I want to control who and why and how for looking at my fascinating medical history, not sure why I care.
They say the Wellness program is run by the insurance company, and since the company is footing the bill it seems reasonable that they have a general idea of what my ailments are, so they can plan ahead to pay for my new parts and bionic upgrades.
Even so, it still kind of feels creepy to have them call me, no matter how helpful.
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