Runner’s World Update

Posted on Posted in Deliberate Consumption, Fitness and Diet, MediaTagged , , ,

I received my reply from Runner’s World regarding my subscription issue.

Thank you for contacting Runner’s World Magazine customer service. We have removed your name from our Preferred Subscriber list. Your subscription will no longer be automatically renewed. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. If you wish to subscribe or renew in the future, you will need to contact us.

Well, that’s a relief. Never knew I was a Preferred Subscriber, nor did I know I would be “automatically renewed.” Now I know. It will apparently take awhile for them to unsub me from all their product listings, but they promise to do so.

It’s a nice magazine to read at the gym, and I like the website for basic info. I don’t need to read it monthly, though, and I’m just not too fond of being overcharged (when I can get it cheaper through Amazon) or being “automatically renewed.”

See previously: Peeve of the Day: Runner’s World

Click through to help me test something…

Posted on Posted in Deliberate Consumption, Food and DrinkTagged , , 1 Comment

Please click through on these links: Cuisinart CSB-76BC SmartStick 200-Watt Immersion Hand Blender, Brushed Chrome and Chef’n Switchit Dual Ended Long Spatula.

Doing so will help me figure out, hopefully, what’s going on with my Amazon Associates. Also – feel free to buy them. The immersion blender is a best-seller, reasonably priced, and great for winter squash mashing and soup, and the spatula is a favorite of mine, also great for soups and sauces!

Where your relationship can be a pre-existing condition…

Posted on Posted in Deliberate ConsumptionTagged , ,

A few people have posted about this, but I thought I’d share with you. SEIU (Service Employees International Union) posted on Friday that “Insurance companies have used the excuse of “pre-existing conditions” to deny coverage to countless Americans.”

What’s that?

I remember hearing about this before, but had conveniently forgotten it due to the fact, that as with many things, I’m privileged enough to not have been in a DV relationship, and that kind of privilege can lead people to ignore the very real discrimination going on against others who aren’t as privileged.

Bottom line folks – I’ll say it again. Speak up. If not for you, for someone else. Let the insurance companies, doctors offices, hospitals, politicians, friends, family, etc. know how you feel about health care in America. If you have a specific issue with your health care, your coverage, your condition, write it out and send it to all of the above. Use social networking tools to get the word out. Corporations get away with this stuff, in part, because WE let them get away with it. If you sit back and say, “this doesn’t impact me,” and stay silent until it does, when the time comes, it may be too late for you.

Privacy and Content

Posted on Posted in Arts and Crafts, MediaTagged , , ,

Lots going on in Q-land. First off, about changes with my web presence. ironheadjane.com will continue to be my blog, and your main source for what I’m happy to share with the public. Conveniently, you can guarantee on my Twitter feeds being seen on the side bar, and you can request to follow me if you currently are on Twitter. For more social networking, I can be found on a small handful of social networking sites like LiveJournal and Facebook, but both of those are ideally limited to those I interact with professionally or socially, and contain more private aspects of my life than I’m willing to share with a broader audience. Think of it as a 21st century filter for how I choose to conduct myself in my non-electronic life. My interest is in more carefully managing my searchable content on the Internet. Privacy will NOT be managed for you, and I’m interested in taking back what control I can for the content I’m responsible for.

I have also secured quasilaur.com. Right now it redirects to ironheadjane.com, as does the email address that will be featured on my MOO cards. The plan is that once I get my past art work photographed, and some new stuff created, I’m going to make a more promotional art/whatever site that is separate from my blog. This is a long term project, so don’t hold your breath. I can’t guarantee it’s going to be happening any time soon as that I have a whole bunch of my art at my mom’s house, and that’s so darn far away I have to figure out how to get it here first. Between the cost of shipping and/or air travel, this might take awhile.

Peeve of the Day: Runner’s World

Posted on Posted in Deliberate Consumption, Fitness and Diet, MediaTagged , , , 1 Comment

I subscribed to Runner’s World magazine last year, just a few months after I started a walk-jog program detailed in their Runner’s World Complete Book of Women’s Running. I found both the Runner’s World site and magazine useful at the time, however, my interest waned and by the time they started sending me offers to renew, I decided it wasn’t worth it.

Then came the endless emails from other Rodale properties in my in-box. Figuring they were an upstanding company, I dutifully clicked unsubscribe on the emails.

But the mails kept coming, and each time, less relevant to me than the last.

And imagine my surprise when I received the latest issue of Runner’s World, with my subscription continued to 2010…and then the bill stating:

Dear Laura ****,

We’re puzzled.

We renewed your subscription to RUNNER’S WORLD as requested.

We’ve sent 4 previous reminders.

But as of 09/02/09 our records show that we still have not recieved your payment of $21.94.

Well, Rodale – I’m puzzled, too! You see, I ignored your previous mails because I had no interest in renewing. Yet you sent me new issues anyway, and now a bill for Runner’s World for $9.94 more than if I bought it on Amazon. This, plus the unending spam in my in-box has made me wary to purchase any other Rodale products.

I’ve sent an email to their customer service, and am rather skeptical that I’ll hear back. One Step Ahead has yet to respond to my unsubscribe request, so who knows where this will lead.