David D. LevineScience Fiction Author

A couple of friends of mine, Eleri and Blade, have been fighting what seems like a losing battle against serious life issues for the past several years. They have two children with a rare genetic disorder that has dramatically impacted their quality of life (the parents’ as well as the kids’), and Eleri has health issues as well that make it tough for her to earn a living. All of this has put them in a deep financial hole.

Now some of their friends are banding together to try to dig them out of it. I hope that you will go to http://helpthehamiltons.wordpress.com/ and contribute something, or buy something from the Etsy shop you’ll find linked there. Every little bit helps.

So we got Kate’s iPhone bill for the month including our trip to Canada. We knew that using the phone in Canada was expensive and she’d been sparing in her use of it, but I was wondering how much they’d charge us. (I carefully monitored my use of my Verizon Treo and kept it down to about $12 in additional charges, but the Treo’s not as data-hungry as the iPhone.)

The bill included $114 in data roaming charges. (!!)

Fortunately, I’d seen a blog post in the last week or so, with the subject “Goodwill”, talking about a similar situation — the poster had made a weekend trip to Victoria BC and managed to rack up a $300 bill. When they called AT&T to complain, they managed to talk with a phone rep for like an hour before the rep happened to mention “oh, there’s this thing I could do that would knock that charge down to $25.” The poster was saying that treatment like this will cause AT&T to lose customers in droves when the iPhone is finally no longer exclusive to them, but thanks to that post, I knew to call AT&T and ask for that retroactive change.

It took quite a while — the rep I got was ignorant but very helpful — but I did eventually get that $114 charge reduced to $25. The magic incantation is “Data Global Plan” and you can find more information about it here: http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/international/roaming/iphone-travel-tips.jsp. You can be sure I will check back next month to make sure we don’t get charged the same $25 every month going forward.

So the only remaining question is: who was that masked poster? I’ve Googled all over and can’t find the original post.

ETA: An anonymous commenter tells me that the original post was here: http://zzzorg.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-to-lose-customers.html. Thanks to The Zorg for letting me know this option existed! If not for that I would have just sighed and paid the $114.

I’m definitely going to Foolscap, World Fantasy, and Orycon. Currently not planning on Steamcon or the Browncoat Ball, but could perhaps be persuaded. Are any of you, my blog readers, going to either of those?

Just got my program schedule for Foolscap. I’ll be auctioneering and appearing on a bunch of programming:

• Fri 5-6 pm – 20th Century Archeology: Panelists will bring along contemporary objects and make us guess – if we were archaeologists 300 years from now, and we dug it up, what would we think it was?
• Fri 9 – 10:30 pm – Which Stories Matter? The world contains an infinite number of stories; some pass by and are gone, while others are revisited over and over. Which stories matter to us? To the world? To the future? What makes a story important?
• Sat 10:30-11 am – Strut Your Stuff – David Levine: Reading
• Sat 11am-noon – Hats, Chapeaux, Huts, Bunkaquanks & Sombreros: Come talk about what you wear on your head, what you’ve seen people put on their heads, and other hat discussion. Bring examples!
• Sat 4:30-6 pm – How to Write What You Don’t Know, and Putting What You Know Into Your Work: So you’ve got a great story, but it just so happens to include something – a location, occupation, field of study, something – that you don’t really know much about. If you’re really attached to it, how can you make it work? How do you research it effectively, and then write about it without overwhelming the reader with “guess what I found out” recitations? Similarly, how do you avoid the same problem when you write about what you DO know?
• Sun 10-11 am – Food in SF Literature: Speculative writing about food can be extremely evocative and compelling, but it’s also often difficult to do well. What’s the purpose of including food in a story? What are some good ways to go about it, and what are the pitfalls?
• Sun 1:30-3 pm – Auction

Just a brief note to let everyone know that we are back home after touristing around the province of Quebec for a week after the Worldcon. We had a great time, saw lots of historical stuff, and ate many fabulous meals. Last night we enjoyed the fine hospitality of Jo Walton, to whom many thanks. The weather here is even hotter than it was there but the humidity’s far more tolerable. And now to bed, because my brain’s still on the East Coast.

Oh, almost forgot: my email box filled up yesterday, so if you tried to email me something yesterday or today and it bounced, please re-send it.

Word count: 1463 | Since last entry: 2425

Quebec. I’m still in Quebec.

We have arrived in Quebec City after nine days in the province, all without affordable or dependable Internet. Now that we finally have good free connectivity I find that the amount of stuff I would like to blog far exceeds both my time and my brain capacity. I will sum up briefly…

Had an excellent Worldcon. All the programming I was involved in went well, especially the Doctor Who panel and my reading. Much difficulty getting to convention parties on Thursday and Friday, due to problems with hotels and elevators, but hung out in the bar instead with lots of cool people. Spent most of my time not in programming or hanging out in the bar hanging out in the halls instead. At Worldcons I have a real tendency to stand in one place (often the hall outside the dealers’ room) for two and three hours at a time, talking with a varying knot of people, and this Worldcon was no exception. Food was awesome… even the worst meal I had (noodles from NooBox in the convention center) was pretty good and with good company.

After the con we rented a car, hit the road, and hung out in the countryside, staying at a B&B in a former school near the town of Saint-Armand. We sampled ice cider, picked blueberries, visited the J. A. Bombardier museum (he invented the Ski-Doo snowmobile), and drove past lots of horses and cows. Frustratingly, most of the restaurants Kate had researched were closed (I blame the zombie apocalypse), including one stretch of two hours and over a hundred kiometers seemingly without one restaurant that was both still in business and actually serving food. But once we did find something to eat it was generally fabulous.

The food problem here in Quebec City is quite the opposite: way too many amazing restaurants to choose from. Also there are book and record stores, plus plenty of touristy things to do. We won’t be bored.

We’re here in Quebec for four nights and will be heading home (with a stop in Montreal) on Wednesday. No promises about blogging or tweeting during that time.