Back in Sacramento and starting to settle in.... and Netflix is still trying to kill their DVD business.

I have been back in Sacramento for 3 weeks now.  After hunting for cars the first two weekends, I finally found a car I was willing to buy on Monday the 12th.  I found a 2013 Toyota Venza as an internet special at the Toyota dealer in Placerville, CA.  Only my 2nd brand new car ever.  :)

I am still hunting for a place to live, without much luck.  The places I would happily move into are out of my budget, and the places that I can comfortably afford are so far not place I really want to live.  So I'm down to hoping I can find a place I like that is only slightly above my budget.

I also received the shipment of my household goods from Poland this last Friday. 

I figured now that I have my nice 27" monitor, I would give the Netflix site a look to see if I wanted to re-start my membership and start catching up on movies.  But I was never a big fan of the streaming services.  I prefer Blu-Ray quality and the "extras" that come on a lot of disks.  And neither of those used to be present on streaming. 

But apparently Netflix is not interested in marketing their DVD plan(s) to anyone.  To even find out they still have on you have to go to the Frequently Asked Questions section of their web site.  And there they only mention a $7.99/mo plan for 1 DVD out at a time.  No mention of Blu-Ray.  No mention of more options than that. 

So I tried logging into my old account, which still works.  There is an option to "Add a DVD plan", which when you click it on it takes to a screen where your only option is to start a free 30-day trial of the 1 DVD at a time plan.  Again, no mention of Blu-Ray.  No mention of other options.

They really seem to not want any business other than their streaming business.  And while they apparently offer a DVD plan still, they seem to be doing nearly everything possible to not offer any information on it short of simply refusing to disclose its existence.

The problem though is why should I pay Netflix $90 a year for streaming when I can it from Amazon Prime, in addition to free 2-day shipping on any orders I place with Amazon?  And since I want blu-ray discs, I might as well try Redbox and Blockbuster.

So to sum up.  Yay, I have a car! Boo, I don't my own place yet.  And an "Epic Fail" to Netflix for actively trying to prevent customers from giving them business.  Way to take the Qwikster debacle and continue to alienate those customers for years into the future.  :)

My time in Poland is over, back to the U.S.

After 22 and a half months in Poznan, I moved back to the U.S. on Friday July 26th.  It wasn't an easy decision as I had really grown to love Poland and the people I met in Poznan, but it made the most sense at the time. 

I will miss my friends there a great deal, especially Kasia and Bartek, Pawel and Iga, Agnieszka, Kate, the two Chris's, and the whole gang at Starbucks.  I guess the question now is how soon do I want to move back. :)

I have been back in the U.S. for a bit over a week now and here is a quick status update for anyone that cares:

• The jet lag is starting to go away, although I have slept a LOT this week.  
• I haven't spoken to or seen hardly anyone I know outside of work, although now that my brain is starting to catch up to the time zone, I will be hoping to see my cousins soon.
• My work schedule has not been fun since many of the people I still need to work with are in Europe.  This has made for 6am (or earlier) meetings, and that is with declining the 3am ones.  This might also be part of the reason why I have been sleeping so much.  :)
• I have not bought a car yet, and am still driving the rental car I got.  Because of my back issues, finding a good car for me is rather difficult.  And unfortunately, the prices of the cars I have found that seem pretty good so far are very high.
• I haven't even seriously started looking for a new place to live yet.  I need to buy a car first, and get my first U.S. paycheck so that I know what my new take-home pay is and how much any car payment may impact it.

Now the question is, what do I do with this blog?  Do I keep it running?  Or do I end it here?  Feel free to comment with your answer.

Thanks