I love getting stuff in the mail. Even just a postcard is enough to make my day sometimes. :-) So this afternoon I've been quite, as the British say, chuffed. :-)
First of all, my mp3 player arrived! Yay! I don't know if anyone remembers it ... in fact I hardly remember it myself since it's been so long since I ordered it. It's been what, two and a half weeks. I ordered it from Komplett.no, a Norwegian online electronics store, which trilltrall recommended to me. He knows about this stuff. :-) They had the player and the earplugs in stock, but not the charger ... it was supposed to arrive the next day, so I figured OK, that's not a problem. But it's taken all this time to arrive. I can't fault these people on service, though - every single day since I placed my order I've been getting an email telling me that it's been delayed by one day. :-D So on Sunday when I got another one I just expected it to be about yet another delay. But no, it was to say that my order had shipped. Yay. I got the text message from the postal service yesterday, but I was out with Anne Ida then (movie review coming up, sooner or later) and when I got back home it was too late to pick it up, the post office and everything else was closed. Alas! This afternoon of course I stopped by there on my way home from work and got my package.
The contents:
The player. It's so tiny! And it weighs hardly anything. It's so cute, I'm charmed. Only problem is I don't know how to use it. I've never had an mp3 player before, I have pretty much no clue how to operate one. But I'm not worried, trilltrall will teach me. He's a gadget freak and I'm sure he'll be only too happy to figure this out too. ;-) I texted him tonight to say that it had finally arrived and he replied, Uuuu tech, let me at it! :-D
The next thing I got was a total surprise. In other words, even better! :-) It was a postcard, no doubt self-designed, from fellow blogger A. over at The Corporate Cog. And look, it has a turtle on it!! A., did you make this specially for me?? :-o In any case, I love it, it's wonderful! Thank you so much, you totally made my day with this card. Up on the wall it goes!! :-) 
Detail. It's so cute, I love it. :-)
The last thing was something I had in fact ordered but then proceeded to almost forget about. I was thrilled that it finally arrived though. It's a sticker (although I did order two to be on the safe side) letting whoever it may concern know that I don't want junk mail in my mailbox. No unaddressed mail. I've been planning to get one of these pretty much since I moved in here, but it's taken me forever to actually get around to doing something about it. (I am slow etc.) But it seriously had to be done. I get so much junk mail ... !! Five or six items a day is not out of the ordinary. While I was in Egypt I got a stack of it almost two inches high. Worthless crap that I hate. I so want to not have to deal with it anymore ... it just clutters the place up and I have to carry it back outside and throw it out. And it's one of the things that in terms of the environment is just the worst ... because it's damaging and it serves absolutely no purpose. >:-( Although it's disgraceful that it's taken me this long to do something about it, better late than never.
My mailbox with the sticker in place. Now it'll be so interesting to see if I really do get less junk mail. It worked the last time I tried it, at my old apartment, so here's hoping. Death to junk mail!!!
Fellow Norwegians, do you need one of these?? You can get them here.
Posts
8 comments:
looks cool and neat, assuming that is not a giant holding it, what size memory on the mp3?
the junk mail reminded me of something I saw in Galway city a shop was forever getting the side of its building covered in unwanted posters, so for the umpteenth time they cleaned and painted the wall and put up a sign "Bill Stickers will be Prosecuted" some smartass wrote underneath in large letters "Bill Stickers is Innocent!!"
I am sure there is something you can sign up on to help reduce your junk mail. We have several organizations here in the states that help reduce the junk mail. Have I done yet myself? Of course not but I do recycle all the paper.
Paz: It has 8gb of memory. The next step up was 16gb and that seemed excessive for my needs, I just want to listen to some music and some audiobooks. I don't think I need anything bigger and the price was relatively so much higher that I decided to go for the 8gb one.
That is my hand holding it and I'll have you know that I have very well proportioned hands, not at all giantlike, so there.
Excellent grafitti, you should have taken a picture!!
kccat: Yes, there is a list like that you can add yourself to, but it doesn't help that much as it isn't entirely respected. Even if you're on the list you do get junk mail and phone calls (although less) and their excuse is that their list of phone #/addresses isn't updated or whatever. V. annoying. And of course most junk mail is unaddressed and so there's nothing you can do to get away from that except label your mailbox the way I've done now. So I hope it will help. It did where I used to live before I moved to Oslo, so I'm hoping for the best now too.
I also recycle all the paper. But it would be better if that wasn't necessary in the first place.
There was a suggestion in Parliament here a while back that instead of taking the opt-out approach to junk mail, we should change the regulations so that it would be opt-in. Ie, you'd have to register to get the addressed junk mail, and you'd have to label your mailbox to indicate that you wanted the unaddressed mail. IMO that'd be the perfect solution. It's the only truly rational approach. But it got thrown out because it would be unfair to the people working in that sector. Jobs might be lost, etc.
Way to go to protect the environment. >:-(
So glad the little guy arrived, did his job and brought you a bit of joy---because I adore the bits you do on your turtle's life...
Maybe I'm being paranoid but I can't help feeling that that bit about getting postcards was a dig at me...
I'm off to Japan again next year so ... you never know.
A. (Cog): Thank you! For both the card and the compliment. I really appreciate it. :-)
James, actually I wasn't thinking of you when I wrote it, but now that you bring it up, you're right, you never send me postcards!! You are so lazy. *cough* How many times have you been to Japan - umpteen! - and how many cards do I have to show for it - none! Sob ... !!!
Leisha:
1) These stickers are not legally binding; the post office may respect them out of courtesy, or they can argue that they are not "sufficient notice" according to the law. You have to fill out a form (which is legally binding) at your local post office and use the sticker they give you.
2) The national advertising opt-out list protects you against telemarketing and addressed (but not unaddressed) advertising mail. In my experience, it is very effective, not least because advertisers can be fined for calling or sending junk mail to someone who has opted out.
These stickers are not legally binding
I don't really care. They work. At least they did for 2+ years where I used to live (and for several days running where I live now :-) so until proven otherwise I will stick with this one.
'Stick with it' - get it? Huh? Get it?
I'm on that list. Since I've been on it I've mostly not been plagued by telemarketers, but some will slip by and claim that their lists aren't updated or whatever. Those people won't respect my wishes regardless. My policy is basically to not take calls from what I deem suspicious numbers ... if someone calls me three times in one day from a number I don't recognize, and they never leave a message, well, too bad if I've missed my big lottery win. Callers like that are almost 100% guaranteed to be a waste of my time.
As for the option of fining them, to be honest, I think very few people actually do that. I think it takes quite a lot to get people to take that step - I don't know if it would be a lot of hassle to get someone fined for this, but somehow I imagine that it would, and I think most people wouldn't want to go through that for something so relatively minor. So it's a good option, but I'm not sure it's used that often.
To sum up & clarify: it may be as simple as making a phone call to the relevant authorities, and when they have enough complaints, they issue a fine ... but it seems like something that may potentially be a lot of hassle for little gain, so I think most people would hesitate.
Post a Comment