An update, 4/17! I got a phone call from Sleepy’s today and spoke with someone. They say they are sending out a check that covers most of what I paid in interest. I’ll update again when it is received.

In October of 2010, I purchased a bed from Sleepy’s. I signed up for their store credit card, made payments regularly. From what I remember, it was either all paid off or close to it when, in March of 2009, I made a warranty call because of a saggy mattress. They came, reviewed, granted me a warranty replacement, and away I went. My initial purchase was $1749.87.

When I went to the store, they told me that I had purchased a mattress that was part of a promotion. That mattress had since been discontinued so they could give me a credit, but because I was getting a new mattress and not a mattress/box spring combo, I was not eligible for the promotional price of a new mattress and would have to pay more to get the modern equivalent. The “more” that I had to pay was $1000.01… to replace a defective item that they sold me that I did not break myself. I was young and more agreeable so I didn’t argue it and put it on my Sleepy’s card. It’s been a long time, so I don’t exactly remember what happened, but I remember it being 0% interest. I was signed up for automatic payments so I didn’t look at the paper statements, I just knew it would get paid down over time so I wasn’t worried.

A few weeks ago, I received an email from GE Capital, who are in charge of the Sleepy’s card. Their system was undergoing maintenance so my automatic payment would not go through. I logged into the account to make a manual payment and noticed that my balance, three years later, was still $671.05. I looked a little further and discovered that I had been paying 26.99% interest. My repurchase went under a promotional period that expired after two years. When that happened, I got hit with the back interest and it’s been going ever since. I called GE, they told me to call Sleepy’s; I called Sleepy’s, they had me wait for two weeks and then said that there’s nothing they could do. My only options at this point were to continue paying 26.99% interest or to pay it off.

I just gave GE $671.05 from my savings. My initial purchase was $1749.87, I paid them $659.90, I just paid $657.05 — $3066.82 in total, or nearly TWICE the cost of my initial purchase. The bank would say that you need to be more careful and it’s my own fault and a part of me agrees, but the fact that this is allowed to happen is very upsetting. I feel exploited, I can’t believe this.

“Grand Cromlech” by Hivelords has the distinction of being the first completed project out of the new studio, beating Coffin Dust, whose full-length is recorded but pending a final mix and master. This is the most natural recording I’ve done in quite a while and makes use of no drum samples, no gates, and only two (instead of four or more) guitars. Easily one of my favorite projects to date. Kudos, gents. If we can figure out how to slim these about 7 minutes each, they will be out on 7″ and available through Bandcamp in the coming weeks.

Find Hivelords at www.facebook.com/hivelords.

Added some new content on Mar 23. See the very end.

This one was frustrating enough that I rewrote the opening three times and still couldn’t make it sound reasonable.

Migrating Exchange 2007 to Exchange 2010. Standalone BES 5 server. Want to do a careful migration, not moving forward with one task until the other one is working flawlessly, so I want BES working so we don’t have to rush the migration of all of the mailboxes. Followed the instructions, moved the BESAdmin mailbox, adjusted MAPI profile, and mail works but the BES server throws constant errors into the Windows application log. I have been working on this for hours.

MailboxManager::CreateProfile (BES_CDO_5264_E) – ConfigureMsgService (80040115) – Ensure that IPv6 is disabld on the Exchange Server or configure the BES to use the closest global catalog server

For real, I was at it for hours and tried everything I could find. The issue appeared to be the way Exchange 2010 handles access to the mailbox to create calendar events. It looks in AD for the server holding the database and tries to connect directly instead of connecting to the CAS machine, which is the Exchange 2010. It fails but if you run IEMSTest.EXE and feed it the CAS server name, it completes. This is a problem with CDO and it cannot be fixed.

The solution, after hours of trial and error, was to follow the Blackberry KB20157 and set BES to use Exchange Web Services (EWS) for calendar access instead of CDO. This scoots around the problem by using the newer, more robust EWS API. IEMSTest still bombs out but the event log on the BES is much happier and calendar events sync correctly. Follow the instructions carefully. I did an IISRESET on each Exchange server at the end and then rebooted BES to be sure.

If this helps you or you have thoughts or information, please get in touch. I’d love to know if this helps anyone or if I could have done something differently to prevent the problem entirely.

UPDATE ON MARCH 23: It appears that this is caused by disabled Outlook Anywhere on the Exchange 2007 server. Every document I found said that you must do this for coexistence though none specify why and I’m still not sure; regardless, enable Outlook Anywhere, give it some time to become active, and it will work. IEMSTest now completes and some other goofy problems I was having with configuring new Outlook users are all resolved. How frustrating.

Though the blog has been quiet, I’ve been busy… or the bands I recorded last year have been, at least. Immolith’s “StormDragon” was released a few weeks ago, Abazagorath’s self-titled EP is coming out any day now, and the Grass/Sadgiqacea split LP has been out for a few months; reviews for all are stellar and as an added bonus, thoughts on the production are all positive. My name has even been popping up, which is always a nice surprise. Some notes, excerpts, links are below. If you want me to me your awesome band sound as awesome as you deserve, email me: subvertallmedia AT gmail DOT com.

IMMOLITH – “STORMDRAGON” (Metalhit)

Released February 14, 2012

When I first talked with Immolith about StormDragon, we discussed what they wanted in their album: pure, straightforward, black metal. They were looking for a production that would have a very traditional feel but still somewhat clean and modern.

“Cowan: Chris Grigg (WOE, Candlelight Records) produced “StormDragon.” What was it like working with Grigg?

Isiamon: Chris is a really cool guy, and was very easy to work with. He totally got what I was aiming for, and is well versed in old school black metal, so we really saw eye to eye on the sound we were trying to achieve…. He cared as much about putting out a good black metal album with his name on it as engineer and producer as we did—the band that played the stuff. I’d recommend him and his studio to anyone.”-Interview from Metal Underground

“Few albums capture the (black) magic of the true kings of Norway. We hear the chords and the vocal patterns of that time, but most bands are merely wanking off the dead dick of Euronymous. Even though black metal is a scene over-saturated with poor knockoffs, every so often we need a good throwback album like ‘StormDragon.’” –metalunderground.com

“[Immolith]… rely on pure instrumentation to convey their dark flames—harkening back to the genre’s analog tape roots.”

–Little Rat Bastard review

ABAZAGORATH (No Visible Scars)

This one was a real treat for me as Abazagorath was the first local underground black metal band I got into when I was first getting involved with things. Their first recording after four years of hiatus, it was extremely important for them.

“The tracks are good and the production is done in an almost first-class manner that shows why these guys are on the top of the US Black Metal scene.”

–Review from Voices of the Darkside

“Leaving aside contemporary tendencies ABAZAGORATH concentrate on classic Black Metal for sure, clearly influenced by the Scandinavian hordes, excellently executed and refined with a thick, super heavy production… Anyway, raging blasts, melodic, sinister riffs, superb vocals, varying, smart song-writing and an intense athmosphere add up to a trvly fucking amazing record.”

–Cvlt Nation review

“All in all this EP floored me literally because of it’s monstrous sound quality…While the various cuts on here come forth like detonating artillery explosive ordinance it’s the final cut, “Storms of Destruction”, which is an absolute masterpiece.”

–Review from Scumfeast Metal

SADGIQACEA/GRASS SPLIT 12″ (Anthropic)

I’ve recorded both Sadgiqacea and Grass prior to this: Sadgiqacea did a demo track with me shortly after I started recording and Grass did their EP/demo back in 2010 (or was it 2009!?) with me in freelance sessions at Red Planet. This split, however, was a beast all unto itself, and really showcased both bands at their strongest.

“This is an almost perfect split album that is available from Bandcamp and as a limited edition 12” vinyl. Whatever format you decide on, you won’t be disappointed. The production on this split is also amazing so I can’t find any real flaws with this at all. Two bands with incredible potential – check it out….9.5/10”

–Doommantia review

It’s been a few months since my last post. In that time, Woe went on tour with Mayhem for ten days, moved out of Philadelphia, checked out studio spaces, bought some new gear, and… well, I guess that’s it, more or less. Work has been interesting lately and I have done some tech stuff that’s pretty cool, though time didn’t allow me to document any of it, so I don’t really know why I’m mentioning it right now.

I think that the reason that I’m writing is because right now is the best I have felt while at home in Queens since moving up here. After months of running around, life is finally starting to feel somewhat normal again, and I’m feeling at home and like myself.

That’s about it for now. I’m going to update the gear list and will post again when I have something worth saying. For now, though, things are good.