Ripped Off

In August of 2015, I contracted with a local business (K & K Merchant, owned by Nicholas R. King) to sell some of my items in their store. The agreement stipulated that I pay a flat fee per month and they would handle the sales transaction.

The arrangement worked well for about 6 months or so. Then in April when I stopped by to restock and settle up the account for the month, the store was closed.

On April 7th, I called the number listed on the door and there was no answer, so I sent a text message to find out when they are going to open. Here is the response I received:

"No we are not going to be we are going to be closing store this month I opened a construction company and I have so much work I don't have time for store I will let you no when we are takin stuff out and get it for you thanks for your business and think you sold 25 or 30."

I heard nothing from him, so on April 27th, I sent him another text message asking him when he will be at the store so I can get my items. Here is his response:

"We will be there next week"

On May 5th, I still had not heard anything from him so I sent another text message. This time no response.

From April 7th to May 5th I also called numerous times, but no answer or returned phone call.

Finally, on May 10th, I sent him an email and gave him four options to make things right.
1. Set a day and time to meet and settle up.
2. Have the owner of the building let me in to get my stuff.
3. Mail me my stuff.
4. Buy me out.

As of today, May 23rd, I have yet to receive a response.

In conclusion, I would not recommend doing business with Nicholas R. King. He has not made good on the written agreement we had.

Hopefully, I can report back with good news regarding the situation and revise my recommendation regarding Nicholas R. King.

Book Review

God Is In The Small Stuff by Bruce & Stan

This book is laid out in a 40 day devotional style. Each day there is a particular topic regarding God's involvement in your life. There is a Scripture reading, the discussion text, and some short phrases to further help you understand and apply the topic to your life.

I believe the last full paragraph of the book sums it up nicely:

"Live your life with an overwhelming sense that God is present in the details all around you. There will be no boring moments. Life will take on new meaning when you begin to see God in the small stuff."

As we know from the Scripture, great things seem to happen after 40 days of waiting, listening, and preparing for God to work. This makes for a great devotional leading up to or coming out of Easter. I recommend this book to everyone interested in seeing God at work in their lives more clearly.

Squirrel Baffle

After several years of trying to keep the squirrels from eating (stealing) the bird seed from our bird feeders, I finally think I have the solution!

I purchased a 2' section of 7" galvanized steel round duct pipe and an end cap for about $10 from Lowes. I drilled a hole in the end cap to fit over the bird feeder pole and attached the duct pipe to the cap with a couple of sheet metal screws. I attached a hose clamp onto the bird feeder pole to hold the baffle in place.

The idea originated from an article I read in the December 2003 issue of Garden Gate magazine.
Below is a drawing from the magazine.

So far it seems to have prevented the Squirrels from getting to the feed.

Cigar Chair Photo

Last night, I came across and article on the Contemporist website describing a new chair for cigar aficionados. The chair looks rather unique. It is a contemporary design with leather cushions. There are drawers built into the arm rests to hold items a cigar smoker might need: a drink, cutter, ashtray, etc. The chair is manufactured by a German company.

Upon looking at one of the pictures, I noticed something interesting. Take a look and see if you see anything interesting as well.

Notice anything? Take another look at the cigar. How about now?

Yep, that's right. The wrong end of the cigar was lit!

I am guessing the photographer is not a cigar smoker.

FRAUD!

On March 30, I received a text message from my credit card company asking me to verify a purchase at an online organic grocery store. The amount was for a dollar and some change. I thought it was a fraudulent text message, but it had the last four digits of my credit card number listed correctly. I checked my email and sure enough there was a similar message there.

I decided to call my credit card company and ask them what was going on. After a few initial questions, they asked me to verify the last 5 or 6 transactions. They were all correct except for the online organic grocery store.

They determined my credit card was fraudulently used and canceled it and reissued me a new card.

I began to wonder how did someone get my credit card information. Most of the experts agree that credit card fraud has been a physical theft rather than an electronic theft. I knew this was probably not the case for me. I shred all documents and mostly use the credit card at large reputable companies both physically and online.

After thinking about it for a while, I figured I would never determine how the criminals got my credit card information. And I probably never will know for sure. However, yesterday, I received an email from an online retailer (discountrubberstamps.com). Here is a portion of the email:



************************************
April 14, 2016 – Notice of Data Breach / Data Security Incident

Dear Wesley:

Thank you for shopping at DiscountRubberStamps.com.  You are a valued customer and we appreciate your business.  We respect the privacy of your information, which is why, as a precautionary measure, we are writing to let you know about a data security incident that recently took place on our system.

What Happened:
We learned that our computer system was accessed without our authorization during the time period of January 22, 2014 and February 8, 2016.

What Information Was Involved:
It is possible that customer credit card information may have been compromised during the incident.  After a comprehensive analysis, our forensic investigators were unable to find evidence that any credit card information was accessed or stolen.  Out of an abundance of caution, we are letting you know about the incident so you can take steps to protect yourself.  

During the time period that someone may have accessed our system, all credit card information processed on our system was maintained on an encrypted server and was protected by security protocols.

************************************



Coincidence? I doubt it. I decided to email the company and let them know that I recently experienced a stolen credit card information. Here is their response:




************************************
Thank you for contacting Discount Rubber Stamps.

We have no proof that any specific information was accessed or stolen from our website. We provided notice to customers because we do not know that some customer payment information including name, address and credit card information was accessible through our system.  While there may be a risk that information was compromised, there was no proof that any specific information was accessed or stolen.

Please continue to work with your financial institution associated with your credit card.

Thank you.

Regards,
Discount Rubber Stamps
800-348-1689
************************************

I am not sure how they would be able to come up with "proof" that specific information was accessed or stolen without an electronic audit trail enabled but obviously thieves got my information from somewhere and it sure seems suspicious.

Thankfully, my credit card company was on top of the situation and all seems to be back to normal again.

Still thinking here at Doe Valley

Book Review

Windows on Easter by Bill Crowder

This book provides an interesting perspective on Easter. It is view from some of the "other" people who witnessed the capture, crucifixion and or resurrection of Christ: Malchus, Judas Iscariot, the centurion, Joseph of Arimathea, the women disciples, and the disciples on the Emmaus Road.

I am not usually interested in books that provide a "different" view on a traditional topic, however, I found it to be the perfect read for Holy Week. The author uses stories from history, from his personal life, from church tradition, and of course Scripture to give a picture or "window" into the Easter story from each set of the characters perspectives.

I highly recommend reading this book if you are interested in looking at Easter with a different, yet biblical perspective.

Book Review

The Master: A Life of Jesus by John Pollock

John Pollock is a well known biographer of mostly Christian people. He was the official biographer of Billy Graham and is probably best known for his book "The Apostle: A Life of Paul."

In this book, however, Pollock tells the story of Jesus from the perspective of John the Apostle. The author uses the Gospel of John as the main source of information, but mixes in pieces from the other Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) as well as the Acts of the Apostles to fill in some of the blanks and make the story more cohesive. The author also used some historical accounts and assumptions that are not explicitly in Scripture.

Overall, it is an interesting story/biography to read and unique in the fact that it was an attempt to write it from John's perspective. However, I would recommend this book only to those people that are already familiar with Jesus, the Gospels, and the Apostle John. Otherwise, a new Christian might take some of the assumptions as Scripture and limit their ability to see Scripture clearly.

Still reading here.

Book Review

100 Verses Every Dad Needs To Know
ISBN 978-1-60587-112-7

As you would expect, this is a book containing 100 passages of Scripture laid out in a daily devotional style. The premise, of course, is 100 verses that would be geared to a father.

Each devotion starts with the Scripture, then provides a brief discussion, then ends with quotes from other people about the topic of the particular Scripture.

Certainly, there were some passages that were directly related to fatherhood. Most could be applied to most everybody.

The quotes were also not exact quotes from the people, they were edited or even used from secondary sources, but even so they seemed to represent the original author well.

Overall, this isn't a bad book. Most of the readings are interesting and all of the Scripture is important for everyone to know. However, if you are looking for something that is geared to fathers then this isn't it.

Still reading here at Doe Valley.

Remove OneDrive from Win 10 & Office 2013

No doubt everyone who has upgraded to Windows 10 is rather annoyed at how ingrained Microsoft's OneDrive is to the OS, especially if you don't use it. There isn't a nice quick and easy way to uninstall it, but if you perform the following commands you will finally be rid of it!

Run the commands in the order below from an Administrator Command Prompt.

Uninstall OneDrive

Terminate any process of OneDrive by running the following command:
          taskkill /f /im OneDrive.exe

Uninstall OneDrive app by running one of the following command:
In 32-bit Windows 10 (x86):
          %SystemRoot%\System32\OneDriveSetup.exe /uninstall

In 64-bit Windows 10 (x64):
          %SystemRoot%\SysWOW64\OneDriveSetup.exe /uninstall

Once you run the above command, OneDrive desktop app is uninstalled completely and cleanly. Most of the time, no progress bar nor confirmation dialog is shown. However, when you search for OneDrive, the app no longer found.

Cleaning and Removing OneDrive Remnants

Since OneDrive is a cloud storage service containing user data, there are folders and files from OneDrive app that are still available on the system as uninstallation does not remove user data.

Run the commands below to clean up those remnants by deleting OneDrive related folders and their contents:

Important: Make sure that the following folders no longer contain any needed user data before proceeding with the following commands.

         rd "%UserProfile%\OneDrive" /Q /S
         rd "%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\OneDrive" /Q /S
         rd "%ProgramData%\Microsoft OneDrive" /Q /S
         rd "C:\OneDriveTemp" /Q /S

Remove OneDrive in File Explorer Folder Tree Registry Key

OneDrive has registry keys which add itself to the Navigation Pane of File Explorer in Windows 10. After uninstalling OneDrive, these registry keys are orphaned, and can be removed.

         REG Delete "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6}" /f

         REG Delete "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Wow6432Node\CLSID\{018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6}" /f

Remove OneDrive from Office 2013

OneDrive has its own icon inside the file menu for Office 2013, follow these steps to remove that icon.

Open Word and click on the file menu.
Choose options at the bottom left side of the screen.
Click on the Save menu option
Uncheck the option "Show additional places for saving..."
Check the option "Save to Computer by default"

DONE!

Comments?

Book Review

Look What's Missing by David W. Daniels

The premise of this book is to "prove" to the reader that the King James Version of the Bible is the only true version and all others are influenced by Satan.

The author goes on to "prove" his point by using references like the following:

The King James Version of Matthew 17:22 reads "And while they abode in Galilee, Jesus said unto them, The Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men:".

The New International Version removes Jesus's name from the text. And technically the author is correct, but he doesn't mention that they replaced "Jesus" with "he". Here is the NIV reading of Matthew 17:22:

"When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men."

Now you tell me, does removing Jesus's name and using a pronoun make the NIV blasphemous?

Furthermore, the author doesn't really give any substantiation to what makes the King James Version of the Bible the best, other than it isn't the 40 or so other Bibles he reviewed. Most of the other books the author references to help prove his point are his own.

Therefore, this is one book and probably author you can completely avoid.