{"id":2351,"date":"2013-12-18T14:30:11","date_gmt":"2013-12-18T05:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2013-12-18\/2351"},"modified":"2013-12-18T14:30:11","modified_gmt":"2013-12-18T05:30:11","slug":"thank-you-skype-for-not-sucking-and-for-saving-my-afternoon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2013-12-18\/2351","title":{"rendered":"Thank You Skype for Not Sucking, and For Saving my Afternoon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Nikkor 200mm f\/2 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>125 sec, f<\/span>\/4, ISO 100 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nThinking Cap<\/span>\nat the Enkoji Temple (\u5186\u5149\u5bfa), Kyoto Japan\n
Desktop-Background Versions<\/b>\n1280×<\/span>800<\/a>  ·  1680×<\/span>1050<\/a>  ·  1920×<\/span>1200<\/a>  ·  2560×<\/span>1600<\/a>  ·  2880×<\/span>1800<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I've been feeling remarkably lazy about writing lately, sorry.<\/p>\n\n

My wife and I were in a travel agency the other day (here in Kyoto,\nJapan) to purchase some pricey tickets for some upcoming family travel, and\nsince it was a lot<\/span> to put on the credit card at once, I had called<\/span> ahead to\nmy US-based credit card to let them know the charge was coming so that it\nwould go through smoothly.<\/p>\n\n

Of course, while standing there at the travel agency office, the transaction was denied. Sigh.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f\/1.4 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>800 sec, f<\/span>\/1.4, ISO 100 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nNext to the Parking Lot<\/span>\nat the Miho Museum<\/a> (\u30df\u30db\u30df\u30e5\u30fc\u30b8\u30a2\u30e0) near Kyoto\n
Desktop-Background Versions<\/b>\n1280×<\/span>800<\/a>  ·  1680×<\/span>1050<\/a>  ·  1920×<\/span>1200<\/a>  ·  2560×<\/span>1600<\/a>  ·  2880×<\/span>1800<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I couldn't call The States with the travel agent's phone, so we were\nfacing the prospect of having to bicycle back home to make the call to the\ncredit card company (again), then head back to the travel agency (again) to\ntry the transaction (again). What a pain.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

But before leaving the travel agency, I had an<\/span> idea. I had installed<\/span> the\nSkype<\/a> app on my iPhone years ago but had\nnever used it. I do that<\/span> a lot.<\/span>.. I've never launched most of the apps that\nI have<\/span> on the thing. (I mostly<\/span> don't even remember what I've put on there\nmost of the time.) Anyway, it was on my mind because I've heard good things\nabout Skype's quality for app-to-landline calls from Paul Barr who uses it\nto chat Stateside while he's in Japan. The calls<\/span> are not free, but they're\ncheap enough not to matter, but you do have to fund your account with some\nmoney to use it... or so I thought.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f\/1.4 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>2500 sec, f<\/span>\/1.4, ISO 100 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nPicture I took of some chick taking a pic<\/span> of some guy taking a pic<\/span> of some leaves.\n(at the Nishi Hongwanji Temple (\u897f\u672c\u9858\u5bfa),<\/span> Kyoto Japan)\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I hadn't given Skype any money, but on a whim<\/span> I gave<\/span> the Skype app a try<\/span>\nand dialed the toll-free number shown on the back of my credit card, and\nvoil\u00e0<\/i>, I was talking<\/span> to my credit-card company as if they were\nsitting next to me. It was amazing<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n

I guess toll-free numbers are supported as such (without toll) by Skype.\nVery, very nice. I encouraged<\/span> the credit card company to acquire a clue,<\/span>\nthe travel agent retried the card while the company was still on the line,\nand all went well.<\/p>\n\n

It saved my afternoon. Thank you Skype, and thank you Microsoft for not screwing them up when you bought them.<\/p>\n\n

I've since funded my account with $10 just in case I\never<\/span> have to use it to call a\nnon<\/span>-toll-free number. US calls<\/span> go at a the<\/span> not-worth-thinking-about rate of about a buck<\/span> an hour, so practically speaking I'll probably\nnever use that $10, but it's cheap peace of mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Nikkor 200mm f\/2 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1250 sec, f<\/span>\/2, ISO 100 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nMoody<\/span>\nat the Enkoji Temple (\u5186\u5149\u5bfa)\n
Desktop-Background Versions<\/b>\n1280×<\/span>800<\/a>  ·  1680×<\/span>1050<\/a>  ·  1920×<\/span>1200<\/a>  ·  2560×<\/span>1600<\/a>  ·  2880×<\/span>1800<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

These photos have nothing to do with the article... they're just some\nrecent photos from among the huge backlog my laziness has prevented me from\ndealing with.<\/p>\n\n

And no, I did not place the yellow leaf on the small statue's head in\nthe lead photo.(I saw<\/span> someone else do it and took the opportunity to snap\na picture<\/span> \ud83d\ude42 )<\/small><\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f\/1.4 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>640 sec, f<\/span>\/3.2, ISO 100 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nFog and Smoke<\/span>\nthe latter from an early-morning leaf-burning fire\nat the Tenjin Shrine (\u5929\u795e\u795e\u793e) in Koka, Shiga Prefecture, Japan\n(not far from the Miho Museum)\n
Vertical Desktop-Background Versions<\/b>\n\n\n1050×<\/span>1680<\/a>  ·  1200×<\/span>1920<\/a>  ·  1600×<\/span>2560<\/a><\/small><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I've been feeling remarkably lazy about writing lately, sorry.<\/p>

My wife and I were in a travel agency the other day (here in Kyoto, Japan) to purchase some pricey tickets for some upcoming family travel, and since it was a lot to put on the credit card at once, I had called ahead to my US-based credit card to let them know the charge was coming so that it would go through smoothly.<\/p>

Of course, while standing there at the travel agency office, the transaction was denied. Sigh.<\/p>

I couldn't call The States with the travel agent's phone, so we [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,14,1,2,6,10,25],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2351"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2351\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}