No SSN No Problem Just send more money

It seems like my current lack of a social security number is not an obstacle to getting various services so long as I have the cash to pay for all sorts of extra fee’s. This has the effect of making everything that much more expensive. It doesn’t help that the bank in the US is playing silly buggers holding on to checks I deposit because it’s a new account. Hopefully they won’t do that to an international transfer or else I’ll be unable to pay the deposit on the flat I’m trying to rent (which is also larger due to the lack of the SSN though in that case at least I get that back some of them have the non refundable one off fee wicked wheeze).

As part of the moving arrangements I managed to wangle a fee for me to buy stuff a huge chuck of that got swallowed up by tax but still a fair amount remains. I was hoping to have that in the bank ready so I can start buying furniture etc. As it stands that fee won’t “unlock” till next monday (and I deposited it in person in the bank that holds the account yesterday) this is a little annoying. I can in the mean time use my UK credit cards to bridge the gap but I don’t want to completely deplete any UK money I have.

This will probably mean I will have in my flat when I move in just the essentials, so a large HDTV … and that’s about it. It does come with the kitchen stuff preinstalled.

In preparation I took a trip to Fry’s which for someone that has never been to one is like a combination of Curry’s, PC World, Maplin, Waterstones, and HMV all in the one store. You can get electronics, powertools, house hold appliances, TV’s, games, music, books, PC’s, components, and a lot more. It’s very overwhelming to navigate.

They still don’t do a kettle … 150 kinds of coffee machine but nothing that actually boils water.

I took a look at their TV’s it seems the 3d bug is the latest gimmick over here, I saw a few very nice looking samsung LEDTV’s that would do 3d for not an outragous price so I might consider getting one of those. They had basically the same deal over in the PC section which probably makes more sense it’s a lot easier to retrofit proper 3d on games which already contain the information than Bluray’s that mostly don’t (or if they do it’s that crappy red cyan, or Anaglyphic 3D, that ruins the colours). I think all the screens I saw were shutter glasses based which just uses extra refresh rate to slot in an image for each eye and the shutter glasses block the images accordingly so each eye for the most part only sees the left/right image.

The 3d tv thing still has the feel of a gimmick to me something that is going to get played with for a bit then forgotten for what ever new gimmick comes along.

Been spending more time in the office getting more into the normal schedule and hours. They’ve got me a good sized desk to work from and as of this morning some machines to work with. Of course no sooner than I get settled in do I find that my boss needs me to fly out to SoCal for a meeting but that is to be expected. At least this time it’s an hour flight an overnight stay and then back the next day. He has been talking about perhaps doing a training session in the UK though which is just bloody typical.