16-V-2004.
From email to my parents, almost whole text:
Since mostly nothing much is happening, let me use the occasion to recount a side story, which just got another installment: the subscription to „la mia boutique“. That's the italian magazine which is like Burda but with more style and somewhat more complex cuts.
Well, for a few years now we tried, at times, to find some way to subscribe to it, but nobody olds it here. Last fall we finally found a website of some german distributor, I typed the address and the credit card number (although my card is debit, actually - the difference is that with debit the money leaves your account immediately, and with credit the operator pays for you and bills you monthly, eagerly hoping that you'll be late with your payment and charged a fine and interest).
A month later the first issue arrives, month and a half stale, and a love letter from Germany [saying] that we should pay. What do you mean to pay, I gave the card number, why didn't you take the money? Checked my account, they really didn't take it. If they aren't able to pull the money, how would they cash the check if I send one? I called one morning, around nine. The lady there spoke enough english, and managed to explain that the accountant, or whoever is in charge of billing, isn't there in the afternoon (it was their 15:00 then), so I better call in the morning, around nine. That's three ay em here, it's out of any question that I should wake so early just because you are incapable of pulling the money from Visa.
I canceled, received two more issues, packed all three and sent them back, slow track, by ship, accompanied with a letter. Sent the same letter by email too, and was done with them. They sent one more letter, that I should pay those three issues, which I ignored. Then when I tried to check on them, I noticed their website was gone - the address still exists, but contains advertising for the website building team. I guess the darkness ate the company.
Meanwhile, and that's november last year, we found another distributor. Amazon, which is the worlds largest online bookstore, and a lot cheaper than these guys at that, but they're also resellers, and say that the order to start sending issues may get processed within 4-6 weeks. In january I started complaining that nothing arrived, by the end of january I asked for money back, and in february got it.
Then in early april the first issue from Italy arrived. Fresh, april issue. These guys don't know where their ass where their head is - Amazon reported to itself that I'm not a subscriber, perhaps reported to Italians as well, maybe even asked for a refund from them, maybe even received it... but the publisher's dispatcher wasn't informed.
Yesterday I got a letter from the italian publisher, in italian. I managed to gather that the magazine will be shut down, whether temporarily or permanently is still unclear, so they want to know whether I want money back or some other magazine of theirs.
All in all, there the crazy [fucked the] confused a bit. Both the Amazon and the Italians are too big and complicated, and a lot of stuff wiggles through their fingers. I wonder what would have happened if the confusion went the other way, i.e. if they kept the money and delivered nothing...
Other than that, it's quiet for a while. We wait for Nina to finish the semester, to move her here for the summer, and Go should come too. Or Go will wait a couple of weeks until beach season begins. Mića, Nina's guinea pig - called „prasetance“ (prase = piglet, psetance = little puppy) - stayed here, so mess hall has two subscribers. They mow relentlessly here, so a lode is getting harder to find, and after a dozen dry days, what's left of grass is getting dry and wiry.
I'm gradually putting together paperwork for a belgian visa, we'll see how long that will take.
The belgian visa is David's scheme, to get me to Antwerp to help him with some stuff, and to repay for the hospitality of two months ago. Now knowing how the EU loves us, this may take some time. He told me not to worry, the Belgians are even weirder than the EU average.
Lots of work for Gary these days, about the controls, my yellow button is going through changes. From the very beginning, when we got into these posters, I was enchanted with doing rocknroll and the chance of giving it some color, not the standard gray. Then he insisted on softening the colors a bit, the contrast was bothering him, but he didn't ask for gray. I haven't gotten to the point where I had dick full of sans serif fonts, just hated the arial, but still haven't replaced it all with serifed fonts. Did that a few years later.
The app on the shot is a sideshow, something the visitors can download and run on their own PCs, and keep in it the data about any poster they choose.
Even this Byo now has these yellow buttons, light blue background.
We still mess with the posters, I'm writing various tools and adding them to the app, to clean up the data and put them in order.
More emails with my parents, 18th.
David is quite tiresome, strictly insists on everything being done his way, down to some mindless details, and then has intermittent attacks of panic. Sometimes we spend 4-5 hours on the phone, what with him still not managing to plug the phone into his machine so we can chat over the web, but rather keeps the line open. I was fed up with keeping a hand to my ear, so I bought an earbud with a little clip, which I attach to my spectacles' frame, so the mike is dangling around my moustache, and my hands are free so I can type. He still types with one hand :). Well now I know how he breathes and what will fire him up, and how tto cool him down, so we've navigated into quieter waters, and there, we function.
Few days ago (I was in the vineyard) Vanji visited. He still didn't receive the contract for Libya, which ails him a lot, time is passing. He had a blood pressure problem, too low, so he even fell and got hurt. Luckily, it happened in the morning, in the bedroom, before his wife got up to go to work. We don't know if he called you.
Ever since the subject of „testimony“ was up, not a word. Joška did email, just to say they found him, but he also didn't have the inclination to say anything on the subject. He emailed overyester too, just to say that Sredljak announced the 30th maturski for 29th of may.
And this morning she braided Lena's hair, which she didn't do for quite a while, so now nothing was at hand. Last time she had to bend down, now she had to raise her hands.
Prletić is courting dad to allow him to break the concrete on our terrace and replace it with a new layer, thicker and reinforced. I refused adamantly, said the garage wall and the one on neighbor's side sit on that plate, and they'd unsettle if he did that. Let it stay as is, there's nothing in the basement that isn't waterproof.
The thing I'm doing for UniJewel is an add-on for their travelling sellers, to keep track of what they sold. They should be able to run it via Citrix and enter their sales on their own laptops, and also check the inventory. Should be, but the Access app never got the inventory right - when we wrote our inventory checkup next year, it turned that each time the vault and the database (i.e. situation found and the books) were apart by thousands (stones, who knows how many carats). They usually had about 2000 that shouldn't be there, and missed some 7000 that should. Most of the time the missing stones were actually sold, but not registered. „What do you mean not registered, I entered it into the computer!“ „Where in the computer?“ „Well in an Excel sheet“. Oh, mother. AS David said, „they want to be in twentyfirst century, but to keep their heads in seventeenth“.
The testimony matter is about the dispute between Vanji and Sale, i.e. DBA. The former sued them for being wrongly fired and demanded backpay as if he wasn't fired. Sale, of course, isn't comfortable financially, if he lost it would hit DBA seriously, so he's trying to grab anyone who'd testify that Vanji wasn't quite unemployed in the time between 12-XI-1993. and 1996, when he employed himself in Avai. He even found my phone number and called me here to ask to at least send a testimonial statement. That, I said, was beyond my knowledge, the salaries in Szoftex were a secret and so were the contracts. I saw only mine, don't know any of others and specially whether he was employed or whether whatever money there was came to Avai via some arrangement. So I'd rather not give any statements on things I haven't seen.
And I meant well, fuck you, you distroyed our company just to get your wife a job, then hired three more wives of guys loyal to you just to ensure you remain the CEO, you are the wild one who runs out the tame, and NOW you want me to help you? Manage it yourself, I'm not aiding you.
Dad wondered why he didn't go for Joška first, as he's at least in town, but chased me first instead - well, perhaps he didn't even know where I was.
Then there's a small newsbit, let me brag a little: while I was unemployed, I tinkered with some code, preparing some lectures, and along the way found that some tool which comes with fox could almost get half my job done, and then what tools I would write could easily do the rest. But the „almost“ was an obstacle, it wouldn't work like that, so I took it on myself to fix it. And the devil wouldn't let it sit, so I sent the fix to Jack (the lawyer's son) to see if it would fit in the next version, that would ship with next fox. That was in january, and now he let me know that it was accepted. So I can brag a little, some of my code will be distributed by m$ (can't be a chooser there).
And dad also reports
Among other news, Đuđa's granddaughter will study in Spain, they say over the web ,and in Buda she pashes the entry exam. She's commanding the language and passed some exams, enough to teach spanish in elementary. Her father had his eye surgered there last year and now went to have sutures removed. The industrialist. Has some dozen workers. And daugher ? A katyusha. „Small“ just like Đuđa of ten years ago (close to a quintal), while Đuđa herself is getting smaller, vanishing, sugar* is eating her.
----
i.e. diabetes
Mentions: 12-XI-1993., Shit waited long enough to happen, Aleksandar Raskov (Sale), Avai, Byo (Byo), David Krakovski, DBA, Đurđa Rođanović (Đuđa), fox, Gary Brandywine, Gorana Sredljević (Go), Gradivoj Sredljev (Sredljak), Jack Baran, Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Joška Apro, Majkrosoft (m$), maturski parastos, Nevena Sredljević (Nina), Prletić, Szoftex, UniJewel, Vilmoš Baranji (Vanji), in serbian