Negative Feedback on eBay

There's a major flaw with the feedback system on eBay. Maybe I don't understand something.

I bought an iPod Shuffle on eBay for $59. The seller said it was "NEW" in the subject.

She used the words "Retail box Package Contents:"

She also said this: "This iPod Shuffle is brand new, I dont have the original box. Factory seal has been removed; however the item has never been used."

OK, I missed the part about not having the original box, but clearly she's trying to indicate that this thing is immaculate and new. It should be as good as the day it was pulled from the "Retail box Package" despite that not being included.

When I got the item (after a week and a half), it was just the Shuffle and a pair of headphones. No box. No manual. And it had dirt on the edges of the controls like someone's grimy fingers were all over it. It even had scratches on the front. Just out of curiosity, I turned it on and it had some shitty country music on it.

LIES. This Shuffle was NOT new, and it had clearly been used. And, there was no telling how old the batteries in it were. The seller was completely fraudulent.

To make matters more interesting, she charged me $9.99 for shipping and $5.00 for insurance. I figured a big retail box with manuals and stuff could cost $10 to ship. When I got it, it had $0.63 postage on it. No insurance. No tracking number.

This is my first bad ebay experience, and I'll definitely avoid people who have been a member for less than a year from now on. I emailed the seller a couple of times asking her to let me return the item for a full refund. I got no response from her, so I reported the issue to Paypal. After about a week, they agreed that the Seller had misrepresented the item and they were going to let me ship the item back to the Seller with a shipping method that employs tracking and I might get my money back.

That's what they said. I might get my money back. I used my FedEx labelling system that I wrote the code for (more about that another time) and printed out a fancy thermal label to ship this dirty iPod back to the scam artist. Using FedEx Home Delivery and requiring a signature, the return trip cost me $8. Now, I'm up to $81.99 (roughly). I drop it off at FedEx and wait. And wait. And wait.

After a month, I call Paypal and say "What gives?" They explain that it just takes time for the claims agent to review the case. The Paypal lady says she can see that my package was delivered and signed for and that I should be refunded my money. I'm happy to hear this and I hang up with the Paypal person and I check my Paypal account and I've been refunded $48.99.

I get a cryptic email from Paypal saying I'm entitled to the full amount from the Seller and they will do everything in their power to get it for me.

I don't get it. When I sell something using my merchant account and a customer calls up Visa or Discover or Amex, they happily yank the full amount out of my bank account and then it's my responsibility to prove I am entitled to the money I charged for. Why can't Paypal do the same?! And how did they come up with $48.99?!?

I called back Paypal and they tell me that eBay collects $25 for a claim. For some reason, which I still don't understand, they're able to refund me $48.99, but the other $25 will have to be forced out of the Seller's pocket. They even promise the following: "Please be assured that we will take appropriate action against the seller if the seller's account has insufficient funds to complete the refund owed to you." I don't understand. What's the hold up? Does the seller have no bank account attached to her Paypal account? Is there no credit card? I even see that the seller is selling more garbage to other people. Shouldn't I get some of that money to make up the $25? Nevermind that I had to shell out $8 to get this bullshit started.

I mean, $33 isn't the end of the world, but it's the principle. Why is it that I get shafted for $33 and the Seller gets her item back and at this point, she hasn't lost any money on the deal. She can turn around and sell this thing to someone else and be in the black again. It doesn't make any sense!

What's my recourse? Well, I would love to leave her negative feedback so others can avoid this scammer, but here's the problem... She hasn't left me feedback yet and if I leave her negative feedback, she'll just retaliate with negative feedback for me. I haven't done anything wrong, I've lost $33 and my shiny 100% feedback will be tarnished. So, I'm compelled to do nothing. Some might say, give her negative feedback - she wouldn't dare lie about the situation. But, check out this exchange with some other poor victim she misled:

It was an easy buy, but wished there was an owner's manual came with it.

Reply by scammer: Wish u know to read,I didnt state in my auction w/ manual,I would send u one,ASK

The guy left neutral feedback and she replies with "Wish u know to read". He didn't even leave negative feedback and she bashes him right there!!

She's crazy!!! And, she has trouble forming sentences!

Another Buyer left positive feedback and said this "OK." That's the cheesy way of saying "You suck but I'm too chicken to explain how you screwed me."

Look at this third pleasant exchange with Miss Scammer:

Poor comunication. Slow shipping. Would not buy from again. :-(
Follow-up by Buyer: BE CAREFUL OF THIS ONE! LIED AND LEFT ME NEG FEEDBACK. BUY ESLEWHERE OR DO W/OUT

Reply by Scammer: this guy is a CROOK,Ebay should NOT allow him on their website again, LIAR!

Rating Mutually Withdrawn: Buyer and seller mutually agreed to withdraw feedback for this item.

I'm certain she screwed that guy too and left him negative feedback. Probably after only giving her neutral feedback. He had to followup and call her out on it. Ultimately nobody wins and they both retract their feedback. She's untouchable!!!

How is this right?? There must be a better system. I'm open to suggestions on how to handle this.

NYRR American Heart Association Wall Street Run - Marathon Qualifier 6/9

This post will probably elicit several jabs. The run itself has already been ridiculed by several Virginians (VA, DC, whatever). I guess its not cool to run with people in Finance - even if they're trying to raise money and awareness for heart disease. Probably more jab-worthy is the fact that this 5K was not actually 5K. It was 4.6K. Why? I don't know. In fact, I just found out now, almost a week later, when I started to write this post.

The explanation given was:
Due to unforeseen circumstances, the course had to be cut by approximately 5 blocks, making the total distance 2.9 miles. NYRR regrets the late change and thanks you for your understanding.

To the credit of the people of NYRR, they actually figured out what the distance was and adjusted the results. This here fancy arithmetic is WAY beyond the means of some Virginia-based running club.

Anyway, I ran the American Heart Association Wall Street Run on May 17, 2006 at 6:30 pm. My brother ran with me and given the nature of traffic at that time, we had to leave at 4:30 pm to get there. We probably should have taken a train into the city, but that comes with its own set of annoyances.

Dozens of heterogeneous blobs of people in their company's custom t-shirts all stood waiting for the race to start. The shirts had dopey sayings like "Run with the Bulls". Merril Lynch, Bloomberg, JP Morgan, Fidelity, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs... all those Excel jockeys were there. There were a whole bunch of people walking and when the race started, nobody moved. This is not unusual for races of this size, but with all the people walking the course, it seemed to take way longer than I'm used to. My brother and I decided to stand around for 7 or so minutes before crossing the starting line. Because we were blocking NYC streets the cops and race organizers were trying to convince us to start moving, but we just stood there.

Once we did start, the race was like an obstacle course. Jumping up curbs, squeezing between walkers, darting in and out of scaffolding on the sidewalk. It was kinda fun. I tried to keep up with my brother, but he's just too fast for me. After about a mile he lost me. I could see him up ahead of me for a while, but eventually he turned a corner and I didn't see him again until I picked up my post-race Subway sandwich and spotted him on the top of a statue pedestal.

The course went through some streets of NYC that were so foreign to me. Not that I'm all familiar with NYC... Like I said before I've been to the city like 30 times. However, the architecture resembled houses in Denmark and I've never seen anything like that in the city.

There were a lot of people watching the race from the sidewalks of Wall Street, but they weren't cheering. They mostly looked annoyed that they were being held up by this crazy race going right their evening commute.

For some reason, I run much better in the morning. I was hurtin pretty bad. It didn't help that I was trying to keep up with my brother who is so much faster than me. I burn out pretty quick at that pace.

The race had signs along the course that had factoids about heart disease and exercising and stuff. One of the signs said something like any exercise is good for your heart. I was just thinking about how out of breath I was and how much my side hurt and I'm pretty sure this isn't what they meant.

The race was sponsored by Subway and they had sandwiches at the end. My brother and I grabbed one each. They were small, but both of us felt sick after eating them. It felt like the sandwich had expanded in our gut and turned into a brick. Subway Sandwich = bad post-race food. We were searching for an apple or banana, but we had no luck. My pace was ok, but this wasn't my favorite race.

NYRR American Heart Association Wall Street Run (4.6K) - Bib # 1150
Financial District
New York, NY
May 17, 2006, 6:30 pm
Weather: 67 deg., partly cloudy.

Jon August, 32
Net Time: 26:41
Gun Time: 33:41
Overall Place: 3107/4455
Age Place: 785/957
Gender Place: 1940/2403
Pace: 9:12

Complete Results (Link to NYRR site)

Don't forget to join Team Factory Interactive for the Army Ten Miler! Space is limited.

...and I'm Just Getting Started.

NYRR New York Junior League Mother’s Day Co-Ed 5K - Marathon Qualifier 5/9

Friday, May 12th was my birthday and at the last minute I called up a few friends and met them for drinks. I was really happy so many of my friends made it out on such short notice. I had a few (many) beers and a couple (4?) of shots of some kind of Bacardi Watermelon drink that the Bacardi girl gave me. After she was notified of my birthday she brought me a Bacardi shirt and a blinky button. Then, she took my picture. I guess Bacardi wants pictures of people who "get the job done".



I certainly got the job done. Anyway, the point of this is that I was pretty hungover on Saturday. In fact, I think I slept all but 6 hours yesterday. I'm still a little groggy today. I set my alarm for 6am and it worked, but I didn't wake up until 6:45 am.

I usually like to take a shower before a race so I can warm up the muscles, but I didn't have time. I was already running late for the 8am start and I was supposed to meet Dulcie in Central Park at 7:30 am. I put on my old sneakers (2005 Asics Gel-Nimbus) because I think the Air Vomeros may be hurting my ankle. I floored it up to the Lincoln Tunnel. At around 7:30 am, Dulcie called me to tell me she was running late and that she would see me after the race. This was good news because I was still in Secaucus. At around 7:55 am, I found a parking spot on Madison Ave. This was awesome because I usually spend a ton of time looking for a spot or give up and pay $40 to park in a garage. I jogged over to the start of the race in the park and asked someone where the registration was. It was on the other side of the park!!! I jogged over to the west side of Central Park, got my bib, chip, and t-shirt. I put all these things on and ran back to the start of the race. Because the race had already started by the time I got to the starting line, I just kept running. I didn't know how long the race had been going, but one course marshall was yelling "let's go, last call!"

No iPod, no Forerunner. I just ran as quick as I could without overdoing it. This is always a challenge. It did help that this was a fundraiser to help stop domestic violence and there was a huge number of people who were walking the 5K. I was passing people like crazy. The 5K distance seemed really short to me today. Compared with the agony of a half marathon, this was nothing. That's really encouraging.

At 3 miles, I kicked it up a notch and floored it through the finish line. That's when I saw Dulcie. I crossed the finish at 34:42, but I had no idea what my chip time was.

I got my chip clipped off and went over to say hello to Dulcie. She was waiting for Jock and Lara who were riding around the park on a bicycle. I stepped away for a bit to get some water and something to eat.

They had stacks of Krispy Kreme donuts and I grabbed one and kept looking for the water. While searching, I saw a couple of NYC cops standing about 20 feet from the donuts. I walked right up to them and said "Guys, the donuts are right there." One of them gave me a dirty look and the other one said "yeah, we don't want to perpetuate the myth."

I kept looking for the water and finally found it back at the finish line. I grabbed a cup and headed back to hang with Dulcie. We hung out for a little while and pretty soon Jock came riding up with Lara. Lara was persuaded to say hi to Jon about 8 times and then Dulcie tried to persuade me to go troll for chicks at the post-race "party." I said goodbye to everyone and headed back through the festivities towards my car.

I looked around at the various booths and signed up for a free Mercedes. I looked at the different pamphlets and stuff. When I passed the Krispy Kreme donuts, I saw 4 cops eating them - including the 2 I talked to. So much for not perpetuating the "myth."

Overall, I felt good. My ankle didn't hurt too much with my old shoes, so I'm more convinced the Air Vomeros are causing problems with my ankle. I don't know what to do about my collecton of running shoes I'm not happy with. My chip time was 29:32 giving me a 9:31 pace. This is a faster pace than my last few races, but it turns out this is my first 5K since March 5 and when compared to my 9:03 pace in the Coogan's 5K, it's not so good. I think I may have injured my back during that race and I think I injured my ankle in the half marathon. Given my injuries, maybe 9:31 ain't so bad. It should also be noted that I drank heavily on Friday, didn't shower this morning, didn't get to stretch, and showed up for the start 5 minutes late. It just feels good to be running and I guess I'm most pleased with the fact that running 3 miles today didn't feel like a challenge at all.

NYRR New York Junior League Mother’s Day Co-Ed 5K - Bib # 3569
Central Park
New York, NY
May 14, 2006, 8:00 am
Weather: 53 Deg., Cloudy.

Jon August, 32
Net Time: 29:32
Gun Time: 34:42
Overall Place: 1827/2514
Age Place: 392/440
Gender Place: 1010/1190
Pace: 9:31

Complete Results (Link to NYRR site)

Don't forget to join Team Factory Interactive for the Army Ten Miler! Space is limited.

Next Three Races:

Wednesday May 17 - 6:30pm	Financial District	American Heart Association Wall Street Run & Heart Walk (5K)
Sunday May 21 - 8:30am	Capitol Hill (DC)	Capitol Hill Classic 10K
Sunday June 4 - 9am	Central Park	NYRR Anniversary Run (4.8M)

...and I'm Just Getting Started.

The Gold's Gym 2-Person Marathon Relay

Holy crap!!! I ran 13.2 miles on Sunday, April 30th as the second half of the The Gold's Gym 2-Person Marathon Relay. My friend, Natalie, ran the first half. The most I've ever run before that was 9.1 miles, so I wasn't so sure I'd even be able to finish 13.2 miles. But, I did it and it felt awesome when I was done.... and then it hurt a lot... and now I feel good again. When I was done, I was thinking to my self, "Self, how the hell could anyone run twice this distance. And, self, do we really want to run this distance ever again?" and I'm pretty sure my gut was screaming "NO, we're never doing this again!", but now that the various pains are behind me, I'm starting to think I might enjoy doing that again. Are runners masochists? Why do we (or I anyway) subject ourselves to so much discomfort and pain? It must be the feeling of accomplishment you get when you've beaten a personal record.

Natalie decided she wanted to run the first half of the marathon which meant she needed to be there for the start at 8 am. I wanted to make sure I knew where to be and stuff, so I went with her. I didn't want to drive an hour in the morning, so I stayed over her place the night before. We went out to Basil T's to carbo load. I'm still not sure that eating pasta before a race helps you, but it was good food anyway.

We went back to her apartment, and her roommate was having a party. Holy shit. I was so mad. They said something about going out, so maybe they wouldn't be around, but I just knew I wasn't getting any sleep. I rarely get a full night's rest anyway, so it didn't matter too much, but I at least expect the opportunity to get some real sleep. No luck. Those fuckers were making noise ALL GODDAMN NIGHT. And one moron in particular kept asking Natalie if she would run the NYC marathon with him. She said yeah and brushed him off, but the dumbass was drunk or something and he made her swear like 8 times that she would actually run with him. It sounded like he didn't even own a pair of running shoes, yet he felt somehow the NYRR was just gonna let him run this fall as long as he had some sacred pact with Natalie. The noise was so consistent that Natalie dug out a pack of ear plugs. I tried putting them in, but I wasn't so sure about sleeping with something plugging up my ear. They were sorta uncomfortable and didn't work 100%. At 3am, Natalie went out and asked the frat boys to keep it down, but that didn't really help much. As anticipated, I woke up with a huge headache. I'm no doctor, but I suspect the ear plugs prevented the necessary drainage needed in the eustachian tubes. The lack of flow of whatever probably resulted in some irritants being stuck in my inner-ear. Natalie was pretty annoyed in the morning and decided we needed to eat cereal in the kitchen right near where the drunk fuckers were sleeping. Of course there was the usually high pitch DING you get every time your spoon hits the cereal bowl. I tried to keep it quiet for those shitbags, but Natalie really poured on the spoon dinging. I was sorta uncomfortable about that, but they deserved it. I was too tired to have to give them a beatdown.

We headed out to the race and decided to stop to get a camping chair so I could hang out and read while I waited for my leg of the race. We got a chair at CVS or something and then headed to Long Branch. I don't think I've ever been to Long Branch as a kid. In fact, the only thing I know about Long Branch is that there was some Haunted House ride there and it caught on fire and it was a big deal. I just googled it and found this page. It's sorta interesting. The fire completely destroyed the amusement park and the owner got $2,000,000 from the insurance company. This didn't even cover his $4,000,000 mortgage. The page doesn't mention any deaths, but I seem to remember a couple of deaths. Maybe I'm thinking of Great Adventure. Yep, another google yields this article about 8 deaths at the Haunted House "ride" at Six Flags Great Adventure in NJ. This might explain my irrational fear of Haunted House rides. One fire at Great Adventure when I was 10 that kills 8 people and another huge fire in Long Branch when I was 13. In another post, maybe I'll explain my irrational fear of bars (places where they serve beer).

Anyway, we watched the Half-Marathon start off at around 7:15 and Natalie put on her bibs and found a pace group she felt comfortable with. The 5:00 group had two pacers. One of them was wearing a light blue polyesther tuxedo with an iron burn on the back of the jacket. He looked pretty funny and he was telling corny jokes. At 8am the Marathon (and Relay) started off and I headed over to Gold's Gym to see what was up over there. Gold's Gym sponsored the relay and they were taking care of us pretty good. I was told they were giving pre-race massages and stretching people out and stuff, but I didn't get that. I guess it was a new gym because it was totally rad. They had a ton of shiny new equipment and treadmills with built-in TVs. The bathrooms were squeaky clean and they had urinals that didn't need water to flush. That's like so cool. They gave us plenty of water and pre-race food and let us check our bags. My opinion of Gold's Gym as a place where greasy muscleheads work out has been shattered.

Instead of sitting and reading as planned, I went to the running store to try out some running shoes. I bought new running shoes in Virginia earlier this year, but they weren't doing it for me. I was still using my old running shoes. I went to Shore Runner where Christine and Mike helped me pick out like 6 different shoes. I ran up and down the sidewalk like 3 times in each shoe and Christine tried to figure out if I was running correctly in them. I finally decided on a pair of Nike Air Vomero shoes.



These shoes were really bouncy (or "responsive" as they say in the industry) and after trying them and then trying my old beaten down shoes, I decided I would be regretting the whole run if I didn't buy them. Christine and Mike of Shore Runner looked at me like I had three heads when I told them I was going to buy them and then immediately run in them. Unfortunately, there was no way I could run this race in my Asics Gel Nimbus shoes. They let me leave my stuff in their store and I wore the new shoes out the door. They advised me to put Vaseline on my feet to prevent blisters. I used some Body Glide all over my feet and toes, in between my legs and under my arms. I have to say it worked awesome. I didn't have a single blister or any chafing. I was really impressed.

I got myself all greased up, stretched my legs, put on some sunscreen, and headed up to the transition area. It was just about 2 hours 15 minutes into the race. If Natalie was keeping up with the 5:00 people, I should see her in about 15 minutes. I hung around with the other dozen or so Marathon Relay runners and waited for Natalie to come in. The race organizers were using walkie talkies to warn each other of the relay runners coming in about half a mile before they arrived. They were really well organized. The Virginians would be befuddled. I saw the guy in the tuxedo come through and then I saw the back of the 5 hour pace group come through and there was no Natalie.

I think it was about 2:33 (clock time) when they called out "7012 Inbound!". I was so impressed. Natalie was totally on track. I'm not saying I think Natalie is a crappy runner. I'm just saying that since I was totally sure that I would pass out at mile 11, I was pretty sure Natalie would be crawling in at around 3 hours. Sure enough, a few moments later, Natalie comes running in with a big smile on her face. I couldn't believe my eyes. How could she be so happy?? I just KNEW I'd be riding the ambulance in for the last 2 miles and she's running like she's just finished a 5K! I pulled the ankle bracelet (chip) off her leg and put it on. I totally forgot all the congratulatory things I was gonna say and I took off like a rocket.

I wanted to catch up with the 5:00 group. I ran the 0.1 miles to the Start/Finish line and kept it going at about 9:30/mile. At about 1.5 or 2 miles, I finally caught up with the 5 hour group. I figured if I could stay with them or in front of them I would finish under 2:30 which was my goal. When I got to about a block ahead of the 5 hour group, I slowed it down to their pace of 11:30/mile. I was going up and down in pace around 11 minutes the whole time. It was great. I was loving the new shoes. They were totally giving back some bounce. And seriously, the first 9 miles were like nothing. No troubles at all. I was totally on auto-pilot.

I stopped at every water stop and drank an entire cup of Gatorade. There was a water stop roughly every mile. Every few water stops they had some food like oranges, gummi bears, pretzels, Snickers Marathon Bars, Bananas, etc... I was having a blast.

At around 5 miles, I saw Natalie and her parents who took some pictures of me and maybe gave me a high five or two. It was cool to see them.

I was sorta running the same pace as a guy who was wearing a Howard Dean shirt. I said something stupid to him like "You think Dean will run in 2008" and he replied all snotty with something like "He said he won't." He obviously wasn't into chatting, so I passed him for a bit. Then a mile or two down the road the guy pulls up right next to me. I mean RIGHT next to me. There was nobody else on the road. He has the entire width of the road and this guy decides to run RIGHT next to me. And then, he rips about 4 farts and runs ahead. I couldn't believe it. The dude totally bombed me. You believe that??

So, yeah, 9 miles no problems at all. I was IN THE ZONE. And then we got to the double digits and I started doing all sorts of calculations in my head. That's when I start to lose it. I start negotiating with myself. "I just have 4.1 miles left" and then 0.1 miles later I'm like "I only have 4 miles left and I've done that before." But then I'll remember that I actually have an extra 0.1 miles above the mile markers and I get all confused and my head spirals into a firey blaze of mathematics. This is really common for me in shorter races and it's the psychological blow that makes me give up. I don't know what it is about all the pointless calculations that sabotages me. For 9 miles, my head was totally clear. I was just checking out the other runners, the bands on the side, the water stops, and looking over my shoulder to see if I was still ahead of the tuxedo guy. Then the last 4 miles I'm making myself crazy with all these numbers.

I think if I can figure out a way to forget that shit, I'd be so much better off. It's helped to not run with music because you can totally tell what the time is by how many songs you've heard. And then you hear Free Bird and you're like "Oh Free Bird is a 9 minute song and the guitar solo starts about 3 minutes in...." Unfortunately, I still like to make sure I'm keeping up pace, so I wear the Forerunner which shows me way too many numbers.

So I'm pushing through the final two miles and I'm going through some neighborhoods and up a busy road and the number of cheering spectators keeps increasing which helps a lot. I love the spectators. I totally eat up all their attention. I always put my arms up in the arm to encourage cheering and it always works. That always gives me an extra boost of energy. I see a guy carrying a 4:45 pace banner and I'm like "HOLY SHIT! I'm kicking ass.", but then I ask him if he's on track and he tells me he's way behind and that he might not even make it. I don't know if that means he wasn't going to make the 4:45 time or if he was planning to pass out. I wasn't gonna wait around for him.

I get to the final stretch before the boardwalk and I can see the Finish line way in the distance. I'm so almost there and I'm so ready to quit, but people are yelling "Just a half mile to go" and I know they're wrong because I've done my own calculations, but it helps and I keep pushing. I can feel my knees starting to harden up and the layer of salty crust all over my face is starting to warm up in the sun. I just keep pushing and the 5:00 group pacer (not the tuxedo guy) comes flying by me. That bums me out until I ask him if he's on track and he tells me he's way ahead of schedule. I just keep pushing.

Finally, I get to the transition area and there's Natalie and her family and they're cheering me on. Natalie started to run with me and I pick up the pace to like 8:30/mile. I keep that up for a few hundred feet, but I have to drop back to 10:30/mile or so. We keep it up and cross the finish line at about 4:56:21.

I was so psyched. HOLY SHIT. I just ran a half marathon!!! I picked up my medal (everyone got one) and my NJ Marathon hat and then I walked it off a bit, but my knees instantly solidified. They hurt so bad when I tried to bend them. I walked a little and someone had to help me onto the ground so I could lie down for a bit.

We drank some water and rested and then went back to Shore Runner to tell them how we did. I must have looked pretty thrashed because they were looking at me like I three heads again. We wrote our times on their sign-in sheet, drank some Gatorade Slushies and took off. After lying down for a bit, and a lengthy shower, we went to Zebu Forno for some food.

Zebu Forno is a really cool coffee shop in Red Bank. They make their own bread and have all sorts of coffee and cookies and gelato. They also have pizza and sandwiches. They have free WiFi and some really cool paintings on the walls. I would link to their site, but they don't have one. I used to like Starbucks because they seemed like they were environmentally conscious and customer focused and their drinks were relatively consistent. But lately they've been getting shittier and shittier. Starbucks could learn a lot from Zebu.

Anyway, before I use up all your bandwidth, I'll wrap this up. The next few days were surprisingly easy. I had some difficulty with stairs and my left ankle is sensitive, but I'm in way better shape than I expected. And, like I mentioned, I'm thinking I could do another half marathon some time soon. I need to figure out the deal with my ankle, but I'm super happy with the experience.

The Gold's Gym 2-Person Marathon Relay (HM) - Bib # 7012
Long Branch, NJ
April 30, 2006, 8:00 am
Second Leg

The Jesus Joggers
Natalie Voskinarian
Time: 2:31:22
Pace: 11:34

Jonathan August, 31
Time: 2:22:52
Pace: 10:55

Chip Time: 4:54:13
Pace: 11:14
Gun Time: 4:56:21

Relay Place: 33/37
Open Mixed Place: 7/8

Don't forget to join Team Factory Interactive for the Army Ten Miler! Space is limited.

Next Three Races:

Sunday May 14 - 8am	Central Park	New York Junior League Mother’s Day Co-Ed 5K
Wednesday May 17 - 6:30pm	Financial District	American Heart Association Wall Street Run & Heart Walk (5K)
Sunday May 21 - 8:30am	Capitol Hill (DC)	Capitol Hill Classic 10K

...and I'm Just Getting Started.

What the...?

Nobody drink anything until 11pm!!

What's the deal with Deal or No Deal?

Have you seen this show? If you haven't seen it, here's how it works: 26 hot models come out carrying briefcases. In each briefcase is a dollar value between $0.01 and $1,000,000.



The contestant picks a briefcase and that's their briefcase to keep if they want. Unfortunately for them, they don't get to see what's in the case until the end of the game. From this point on, the contestant has to pick which briefcases they want the models to open. Howie Mandel, the show's host, tells the model (quite impolitely) to open the case. These cases, and their corresponding values, become out of play. Every few cases, "The Banker" will call and offer to buy the contestant's case from them for some amount that's calculated using the values still in play.



The banker would like to pay the contestant as little as possible. Depending on the values of the cases just opened, his offer can go up or down. Howie relays the banker's offer to the contestant who then has to decide "DEAL" or "NO DEAL".

The interesting thing about the show, besides the models, is the seemingly idiotic decisions people make. I've seen a contestant knock out enough cases to make the offer go up to $200,000 and end up taking home $14,000. Instead of taking $200,000 and being happy, they declare NO DEAL and end up knocking out some high values.

To stretch out the game, Howie spends a lot of time talking to family members. He usually asks them whether they think the offer is good or not. Inevitably, a young child gets involved and is given the responsibility of deciding DEAL or NO DEAL. Everytime this happens, the kid makes the wrong decision and they either end up keeping much less than they could have gotten or they start knocking out high values and get a crappier offer. This always bothers me because you know this is going to be the climax of an argument with their parents down the road.

And what's the deal with the Banker? Why can't we hear him talk or even see him? Why do we need him at all? Can't they just put the dollar amount up on the board? I think the family members are always boring with their corny cliche remarks. I also think it's lame that they always go to commercial just before the contestant makes the DoND decision. I never watch the show live. I just fast forward to the case openings so I can check out the models and then I fast forward through the hemming and hawing to the DEAL or NO DEAL decision. It takes about 2 minutes to watch the whole show this way.

Do any of you like this show? What do you like most about it?