feeling like a world citizen!

[dbskyler]

I have finally finished a major milestone for work, and as a reward I decided it was time to go on to the British Amazon site and buy three things that I can't get from the U.S. site, or are far more expensive there -- Writer's Tale, Single Father, and Takin' Over the Asylum. (Yes, I'll be putting my multi-region DVD player to good use!)

So, off I went to amazon.co.uk. I clicked on check-out, and I told them I'm a new customer. After all, I haven't bought from them before. Except -- strange! -- they said they already have someone with my email address in their system. So I put in my regular U.S. Amazon password, and there I was, there was my account, and there were all my shipping addresses, including places I haven't lived at for years. Even my credit card information was already in their system!

I suppose I should be slightly freaked out, but actually it was kind of nice. They even gave me an automatic currency converter to tell me how much I'm paying in USD.

In other international news, I've been spending a lot of time hanging out in the help_japan auctions. There are some amazing offers going, especially in the "interesting stuff" category (which, amazingly enough, is full of interesting stuff!) I'm really amazed at some of the ideas people have come up with that don't require much outlay of money, or indeed any money at all. Like six months of flattering emails. "Box of [local place where offerer is from]" seems to be both popular and doing well, and there are also a lot of offers to send postcards, letters, etc. Who would've thought that plain old, regular snail mail would be so popular in the internet age?

Comments

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Who would've thought that plain old, regular snail mail would be so popular in the internet age?

I dunno, a flistie of mine has actually made a little business of it - sending a photo and a short piece of fiction as hardcopy in the mail to subscribers.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Wow, interesting. A lot of people are bidding on snail mail, so there must be something to it!

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

OMG! You actually bought 'The Writer's Tale'!!

Funnily enough, I was having another major rant about RTD's lack of writing skills with a friend last night on IM - and ended up getting bitten by a voracious plot bunny for a tale featuring Ten and Martha stuck in 1969 running into Three and Liz (yeah, I know, it's stretching a point, but UNIT dating IS unclear! :P)

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Yep, I bought it. I'm interested in the Doctor Who writing process, and I actually think RTD is pretty insightful about that kind of thing even though I don't always like the outcome. Anyway, I'll find out what I think of the book after I finally get the chance to read it!

Oooh, Ten and Martha running into Three and Liz? That sounds interesting.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Well I hope the book proves instructive. (I can hope!)

Well, it's more a case of Martha running into Three, Liz and UNIT, and then Ten belatedly arriving (to get an earful from Three! *smirks*)

And I apologise for not congratulating you on finishing that monster of a report - I should have done that first!! *hugs*

[boro-girl.livejournal.com]

Amazon is a global company, we just have preferences for country set by our location. I've ordered stuff off .com and .fr before (the latter was fun - had to get my French housemate to make sure that I was ordering the right thing and putting my card number in the right box!) but it is quite awesome to see your details pop up in another country site.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

It was kind of awesome. Although today there was a difference: instead of the usual "your order has shipped" email, I got an email that said, "your order has dispatched."

It's dispatched! That sounds so much more exciting than mere shipment. :D

The French site does sound like fun. Hmm, I wonder how expensive it would be to try to order at least one thing from every worldwide Amazon site, just for the hell of it?

[pitry.livejournal.com]

Funny- they must have changed it then, cos I'm pretty sure I had to register for both US and UK Amazons. And then I went "but you're the same bloody corporate why why why" :D :D

WHEEE! First congratulations, mazal tov and various other hoorayings for finishing you thingie! I suggest, in addition to getting DVDs, go to sleep :D
And then double whee for the Writer's Tale and Takin' Over the Asylum. You're in for a treat.
Single Father... well, DT is amazing there as per usual and it's nice, don't get me wrong, I didn't hate it.. but I wasn't overly thrilled with it I have to admit. I suggest watching it before watching Takin' Over The Asylum cos that one's practically a work of art and you'd probably like Single Father less if you have to compare it.

Or your weird taste would show up and you'd like Single Father better. :P

Anyway, congraaaats!

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :D And yes, sleep is a very good thing.

Okay, I'll watch Single Father first. I kind of went back and forth on whether to get it, but I do want to see it, it seems unlikely to get released here (although watch an announcement come out now), and as I was ordering stuff anyway, the shipping cost was negligible.

By the way, you do know that you're the one with weird taste, not me, right? :P :P

[pitry.livejournal.com]

My taste is unique, damnit, unique</>!! :D :D :D

Oh I definitely understand wanting to see it, I probably would have bought it already had I not, erm, saw it, already, erm, er. Yes. I'm glad I watched it - it wasn't a waste of time, I wouldn't have survived 4 hours had I not found it enjoyable... I just wouldn't want to re-watch it. Unlike TOTA :D

[evil_plotbunny]

When I first started ordering from Amazon.co.uk, they were separate accounts. I'm not sure when they merged them. I've been working on my German recently, so I've been ordering DVDs from Amazon.de recently which was a language lesson in itself. :)

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

I'm starting to think that a worldwide tour of Amazon sites would be a really fun thing to undertake. I'd definitely have trouble with German, though!

[thisbluespirit]

Aw, there's nothing like actual non-junk mail popping through your letter box and landing on your mat!! :-)

And, yes, well done for finally finishing that' that's really good - I hope your purchases don't take too long to cross the Atlantic & you enjoy them all!

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

I think you're right -- the move to email has meant that a far larger proportion of our snail mail is either junk or bills. Actual mail is now a rare and valued commodity!

Amazon estimates my stuff will arrive the second week of April. Not bad.

[thisbluespirit]

I've had more nice post than usual lately, and it's always a good thing. :-)

No, it isn't.

Btw, how are the attempts at vid-making coming along? Also, I have not forgotten silly_sfx, but give me another week or so, and I might finally get back to you on that one! (Maybe we'll both be capable of contemplating it again by then...)

[thisbluespirit]

Ha haha! It worked - I can see the comm. I joined it. (Sorry. that was my secret, cunning, evil plan to type the name and see if it took me there. Of course, if I was more cunning, I would have commented on an old post of mine to do it, but where would be the fun in that?)

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Yay, there you are in silly_sfx! I think I managed to make you co-moderator and co-maintainer, so hopefully it worked.

And look, curuchamion has joined the comm, and we haven't even done anything with it yet! Wow.

My vid-making is still stuck at the "upgrade my OS system" stage. I've been a little busy with work, but hopefully I'll have more time to devote to it now. I'd hoped to learn how to make clips by the time you were ready for silly_sfx, but if you really think you might be ready in another week or so, I'd better hurry up!!!

[thisbluespirit]

Yay, yes it worked! I can do, erm, anything I wnat with it, it appears. (I nearly changed the default user pic to a B7 one - we could be like the fairies in Sleeping Beauty: Blue! (DW!) Pink! (B7!) - but I behaved myself.)

Well, I have a list of categories and thoughts from my original post in my notebook. I'll see how I go with getting a bit more back into doing things on the pc this week, but I may at least be able to type that out, even if I can't work out complicated things.

And in the meantime, I was introduced to the Blake 7 image bank, so there are hundreds of pics there to illustrate very odd creatures and cheap sets!

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

And here I thought that I was being nice and compromising by going with DW for the default icon. Just be glad I didn't use a Space:1999 screenshot! (And okay, the bubblewrap was too perfect to resist. Space:1999 didn't make nearly as much use of bubblewrap as DW did.)

Your icon-making skills are far better than mine, so if you have a better bubblewrap-themed icon, feel free. (Yes, even if it's B7.)

[thisbluespirit]

I was only teasing, of course. :-)

However, I played with a couple of caps myself - see if you like any of these:

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Oooh, yes, pretty icons! (How do you get them to look so shiny like that? Mine always come out fuzzy. Is that because I'm using screenshots?)

I like both your Ark in Space ones better than mine. I switched the default to the text one -- take a look and see what you think!

By the way, should I mention here how much that scene scared the hell out of me when I was a child? Bubblewrap can be very frightening!

[thisbluespirit]

Thanks! :-D

I am laughing, though, because I think you weren't on my flist when I started making icons and went on for weeks about how fuzzy they came out... until someone asked me if I was saving them as jpegs. Save them as a .png file and you automatically lose a lot of the fuzzy. The rest comes from practice, sharpening things (which I am STILL not v good at getting right) and studying things on icon_tutorial from people who actually know what they are doing (I am still, 'hey, look what this button does!'), and since I see from your other post you have graphics qs from making your fanvid, might be worth checking out. I have seen qs about fanvid graphics on there, so you might find a tip or be able to ask.) :-)

Those are all from Ark screencaps I found on the web. And, aw, scary? Aww. Aside from Seven's era, I never saw many other DW when I was young enough to be scared by it, so I am always impressed if there is a moment that still makes me shiver a bit, despite the bubblewrap/whatever. (Pyramids did this, Earthshock, but not many others.)

B7 is not much into bubblewrap, either. I expect people were using it more by 1978. But they did think a cool box looked really futuristic in S1. Now it just makes them look like they are doing the v English thing of going on a picnic, even though the weather is rubbish and they have forgotten the cake and lemonade...

(PS. The Pratchett quote is "Five exclamation marks, the sure sign of an insane mind!" or something to that effect. It has become a sort of running joke with several people I know.)