Seems someone is doing a piss poor job of ripping off Lance.

Smithers, release the hounds!!

Just when you thought it was safe.

It would seem it’s all my fault. I mean, I was the one who left my old crappy host for the new jammy jam of mediatemple. And the switch went without a hitch. It was perfect.

What I hadn’t noticed was that I wasn’t getting any bills from them. Then one weekend recently, I picked up on this strange fact. I began searching credit card statements, emails, checkbooks. Something that was either a bill or a payment. There was nothing but their original welcome email.

So I pondered…

Do I call them, and see if there’s something wrong? Maybe they have incorrect info and bills are going to the wrong address. Maybe they don’t have the proper credit card info and have been unable to bill me. Damn, I’m gonna get stuck with one big bill instead of a bunch of little ones.

OR…

Do I not call them and hope they don’t catch it? And even if they do someday catch it, can I feign stupidity and say “It’s not my fault!” in the hopes of not paying any back bills?

Conclusion:

Better to call them and find out what’s wrong, before the situation gets out of hand, straighten the whole thing out, and then it’s over.

So I called them.

Me: “Hi, umm,I’d like to bring to your attention the fact that I haven’t been paying you any money for hosting my website?”

Billing Elf: [chuckle]

Me: “Yeah, I know, it’s sounds ridiculous, huh? Someone actually calling you to say they haven’t recieved a bill and wants to pay…hehe”

Billing Elf: “It’s unusual…[chuckle]”

Billing Elf: “What’s the website name?”

Me: “treetrybe.com”

Billing Elf: “I do see we are hosting you, and you are in our billing database.”

Me: [thinking] Duh! “I know you’re hosting me, that’s why I called you…hehe”

Billing Elf: “Ok, let’s see if we can find out what happened.”

We chuckled a bit more and got it straightened out. They graciously let me slide on the months I wasn’t billed for. I was happy, they were happy. It was a silly conversation but it all worked out for the best. Or so I thought.

I recieved an email a day or two later, from the elves in California. Barely scanned it. It was another happy little welcome message. Sure there was other stuff on it, but I just figured it was a repeat performance of my original email welcoming me and telling me what my info was. I already know my info, so I skipped that part.

Skip to today.

I had something quick I wanted to set up on my site, but I am at work and don’t have my FTP stuff set up here. I set it up quickly, because after all, I know all my info, and tried to log on. Top 3 answers on the board…SURVEY SAYS!!! [X] Ehhh!!! Sorry, wrong answer, luv. So I dig out the happy email from the California elves. Looks basically the same. Couple things are different. I start to think, maybe I do not know what I think I know. So I set up my FTP program with the info from the email. SURVEY SAYS!!! Ehhh!!! Huh? I contemplate…and proceed to set it up using the IP address listed in the email just to make sure. SURVEY SAYS!!! Ding!!! I’m in. Oh happy day!! Wait a minute. What the hell is this? Where are all my directories?! Where are all my files??!! WHERE’S MY WEBSITE?????!!!!!

I type the URL into the browser… http://www.treetrybe.com/. It works. It’s all there. So what’s going on? I type the IP address into the browser… http://209.132.201.71/. What the hell is going on??

Me: “Hello? Elves? Something isn’t right and I’d like to straighten it out.”

Service Elf: “Yes, you’re right. That’s not right.”

Me: [thinking] Duh! “So you see that there’s two accounts?”

Service Elf: “Yes, seems someone added you to the new service. But your website is actually on the old service.”

Me: “Do I want to be on the new service?”

Service Elf: “Well, it’s faster, and there are a bunch of new features that go with it.”

Me: “Ok well, If I want to really be on the new service then I’ll have to transfer all my files over, switch DNS numbers again and wait for the change, huh?”

Service Elf: “Yes, and then let us know and we’ll delete the old account.”

Me: “Umm, ok thanks, I’ll let you know.”

I’ve decided to switch to the new service. But I don’t think it will go so smoothly this time. So if you see me trapped in an FTP wormhole, please come get me.

It’s all my fault isn’t it?

I am in the midst of watching a documentary on Alexander Calder that I caught by accident. I am stunned not only by the objects, but by the very fact that I have been all but oblivious to this amazing man and his works. The wire sculptures alone have me transfixed.

ACK!!!

The May 1st Reboot seems to be in full swing. I don’t understand the point. I think maybe I’m too young to get it.

I feel so bad for poor Dave. He was having such a bad day and I only added to his confusion. Sorry Dave. I wish I had that dream though. Sounds like fun. Was Pamela Anderson in that one per chance?

New layout—as yet unfinished, but I had to change it. I left the blogworkorange version up far too long. I know there are problems with this one, but they’re minor. I think by the end of the month I will be using greymatter. It’s installed and it’s running, but I’m still configuring templates and things. like you needed to know all this.

Oh, and the blogworkorange layout will be here for now, until I set them all up in a museum or something.

I hate to do it, but I think a little greymatter is in order. Sorry Ev.

I’d promised myself that this was going to change every sunday and thursday, but other obligations, and my own overwork, have not only kept me from updating this with a new Celebrity design, but have kept me from finishing mine. I am going to try and do both this weekend. There will be one more new Celebrity design this weekend, then I will get back to finishing my own. I would still like to keep this up as a side project, just for fun, and just to keep experimenting with other designs. It’s amazing what I’ve already learned just from the 3 that I have done. I love experimenting like this. I still think it would make for some really great Halloween fun if we all dressed up like someone else’s site for a day. So…

If you missed the other 2 look-a-likes that I did here they are:

• harrumph!
• zeldman

Alison seems to think this is brilliant, but I can’t take any credit for it. this is only just an imitation of the original. copying it was the easy part, and required no brilliance on my part, but thanks anyway. I do not want to become the Weird Al of the internet.Who’s bad?!