23 May 2012 (Wednesday) - Beamed up

I did a couple of on-line surveys over brekkie. And got annoyed with them. I don't mind being screened out if I don't fit the profile they are looking for. But I was over half way through one when they decided that I didn't fit their profile. I think that's a bit cheeky.

Earlier in the week I found small canvases on eBay. They weren't cheap, and the postage was extortionate. I sent the seller a message to ask if they would do cheaper postage on a job lot. And in the meantime I got the same thing at less than half price from a shop not ten minutes walk from my house.

This morning's haul of emails had one requesting payment for a job lot of canvases from this same eBay seller. I emailed back to ask what it was all about: I'd just asked about postage costs. I'd not bought anything from her. When I checked my emails a bit later I saw I had a reply. She thought she'd save time by going to the shop, buying a job lot of small canvases, bagging them up and sending me the bill.

She was rather miffed that I didn't actually want to buy her overpriced canvases; apparently she'd gone out of her way to get the canvases for me. Presumably to the same shop that I went to yesterday. Was I being unreasonable? I don't think so. In any case if she thinks I'm paying her twice the price charged in high street shops she can get stuffed.

Talking of arty stuff I see art has hit the news. A world-renown painting has been defaced and the vandals are in custody. They've apparently defaced the artwork for political reasons. Personally I think that the fact that the painting features someone waving their willy about is reason enough to take a moral stand.

Meanwhile the people who brought us (or NASA) Space-X have taken the ashes of James "Beam me up Scotty" Doohan into orbit. Bearing in mind that the launch was on a commercial basis, I can't help but wonder how much this rather quixotic gesture has cost. And who's stumping up the bill. And for all that this is actually rather amazing, no one seems to have realised that Scotty has been dead for these last seven years. Do people keep the ashes of their loved ones kicking about on the off-chance of hoiking them into orbit....?