Ok, I’m writing this again, hopefully for the last time.
Last Thursday, a RAID controller on the server that hosts this site went bad and took out the entire server’s data. As far as I’ve been able to determine, the site data is completely unrecoverable.
Once again, the time has come for all good bloggers that use WordPress to visit their local WordPress meetup.
I will be attending the WordPress meetup in Philly as usual, after a several-month hiatus due to moving houses. I’m anxious to get back and see the clan and hear about what everyone has been up to over the summer.
I used to think that Volant Fitness in Downingtown was a great investment in a home-town gym, but as it turns out, they’re just another of the myriad of money-grubbing impersonal fitness corporations earning their keep off the forgetfulness of their auto-debited members.
Admittedly, it’s been quite a while since I’ve visited Volant Fitness. Since April, when we started seriously thinking of moving, I haven’t had any time for that, not that I was a very regular visitor before then. But I did call to cancel my account because it was a $50 monthly drain down which my money poured.
My call to Volant was a bit odd. They told me that the person responsible for cancelling accounts was not there. I assumed this was necessary so that they can convince you to keep paying for nothing, but at a lower rate. More likely, it was a ploy to keep me unable to cancel so I would continue to have the fees drafted from my credit card. I left a message in the general manager’s voicemail, and in the turmoil of moving preparations I never noticed that he didn’t return the call.
I would see the charges from Volant gym on my bank statement periodically during this period, and sometimes call them to try to cancel. Each time, there was no manager available.
Finally yesterday, I figured I would visit the gym itself to cancel my membership. They couldn’t deny me if I was standing in front of them, could they? Yes, they could.
I’ve updated my Countdown plugin to add a new feature in addition to a few minor changes.
Thanks to Denis de Bernardy, Countdown has widget support. If you use a theme that supports widgets, you can install Countdown and use the widget interface to position the Countdown output. The widget controls allow you to specify the title of the area and number of events to show. Use the regular Options page for Countdown to set the standard options including the event dates themselves.