Yelp is a scam, if you didn't know. And other tales from my hectic life...

I keep forgetting to mention this, but remember that commercial I said I did for Dr. Hypno? It turned out really nice, but it was not ever posted online because it was done through the scam known as Yelp. I didn't even think to check it out beforehand since other hypnotists that compete with Dr. Hypno have Yelp pages with very professional-looking video ads.
` Problem is, when Dr. Hypno tried it for his own practice, it was fairly worthless besides making a commercial with an independent company -- and he will still have to pay that company $500 just to use it.
` Besides not putting the video up, nor good reviews he's had from clients, Yelp charged him $18 per click on his ad -- and it mysteriously got 11 clicks on the first day. He tried to contact the people in charge of Yelp, and was subsequently blocked from accessing the very page he had paid for.

In order to get out of the contract, he discovered that he would have to pay $1,000, in addition to all the other fees that got him nothing. Instead, he refused to pay for the nothing, and they withdrew $350 out of his bank account anyway.
` This was unfortunate, because he was going to use $300 of that to renew his hypnosis license. Not long after this, his vehicle wouldn't start and he could no longer drive to his day job, which he had been planning on not needing in the near future.
` Having lost so much money at once, he was unable to renew his license. At the same time, he was getting calls from more and better clients because he had also just updated his website. Unfortunately, since his license had expired, he has had to refer them out.

It's been months, but this has been affecting us both quite a bit -- especially since I've been loaning him the car I bought in September a few times a week, or even picking him up at work. I do this because I think it's better that he doesn't spend half his day on buses.
` My vehicle at least seems to be in good shape, although sometimes it seems as though it isn't actually "mine". On Tuesday, a mechanic tried to electronically diagnose the problem with Dr. Hypno's vehicle, but even that didn't show anything.
` Who knows how much more time and money he will have to put into figuring out this mystery? It's been a very greasy and expensive one thus far.

So, he's gone from seemingly very close to his goal of entirely supporting himself via his own career, with a good website and a good video ad, to not even having a vehicle to get to his day job.
` And what is his day job? He is the tech support guy at a small company, and he's very good at what he does. Of course, he would much rather troubleshoot people's mental workings than their computers, and if that becomes draining, he's great at street hypnosis.
` For now, he must solve his own monetary problems without the benefit of hypnotherapy income (which can be quite a bit), partly thanks to Yelp being full of fraud.

Indeed, we checked out the internet and found that many other people have the same problems -- good reviews being hidden, bad reviews being put at the top, people not being able to log into their Yelp account in order to fix anything, much less use it to blare to the world that they are being cheated, etc.
` I see Yelp stickers on all manner of business windows, including my own gym. Every time I see one, I just want to tell the owners why using this service goes against their interests -- unless they want to encourage bad reviews, as with the owners of this restaurant.
` Thankfully, Yelp is already starting to get bitten by their own bad business practices, and it may wind up driving them off the market. Hooray!

As for myself, I spend a lot of time over in Dr. Hypno's studio, where he's been keeping my piano so that I can play it. I also spend some amount of time in the apartment where I am paying rent on, although I don't want to be there because that's where my ex lives:
` When the other six people at the house we were living at turned out to be far more dysfunctional than I imagined, I agreed to help him pay rent in a two bedroom apartment so that I could keep my two cats, and retrieve my belongings from storage after four months of living out of my luggage.
` Technically, I still do live out of my luggage, but I have a room in the apartment, although it's barely useable due to all the boxes and unassembled shelving which keeps being added to it. I will have to move that stuff out if I am to actually have room to finish setting it up as an office.
` When I have my car, I load up my bag, my laptop and my chair, and drive wherever I need to go in order to write. It's a really nice feeling.

However, Vada gets very upset at my disappearance for entire cat-weeks, and cannot unglue herself from me when I'm around. Dilly, on the other hand, often bites me when I try to touch her and pees in my bag.
` I had been using the small school bag I used in college, but last week I bought a much larger one so I can finally fit a couple of changes of clothes in -- and she peed in that one when I started packing it.
` So, now I am working on being more sensitive to her, and her behavior is improving. My new bag still smells, though, despite my best efforts.

It would be better if I spent more time with my cats, and maybe I will since lately my ex hasn't been a jerk to me and/or an emotional wreck. I must say, however, that the last time he bullied me, it was both sad and hilarious in a way:
` I was enjoying some dinner when he came home from work and tried to make me feel ashamed of myself for the stupidest reason ever: That a hot girl at his job really likes talking about "pooping and farting" whereas this is a subject I don't find particularly interesting, especially when I'm eating.
` Asserting that there was something wrong with me, he mockingly repeated these words over and over like a four year old, thus chasing me out of the room. He then laughed at me, proclaiming that my disgust at his asinine behavior shows how much more mature he is than me.

Yes, really. Since then, however, he hasn't bullied me or displayed other bizarre behaviors and uncontrollable emotional outbursts. I think it has to do with his getting physical therapy for the first time since his work injury in 2012, which has sent him to the ER many times and almost killed him.
` Though his insurance claim still has not been opened, the injury has become more of a problem since he ran out of his high-powered cannabis cream and then got into a fender-bender. I'm impressed by the dramatic increase in healthy behavior since he's been seeing a physical therapist.

I keep thinking of the insane, dramatic events in our lives which has led up to this situation, and feel amazed that we aren't homeless or dead. Alas, neither of us quite has enough income to live independently of one another, but that may well change soon.

As for Dr. Hypno, he's got plenty of income for rent, but money is otherwise tight at the moment, due to a few factors that are out of his hands, including the two I've mentioned.
` If he had realized that Yelp was this dodgy, or at least if they had not chosen him to screw over, he could easily be raking in over a thousand dollars a week as a hypnotherapist.

And as for all three of us goes, I've been thinking a lot about how none of us have much of a support network -- although I'm grateful to be the one with a family member who is both alive and cares about me. Also, most of my friends are still alive, and some of them live fairly close.
` I think it's safe to say that if any of us had a larger support network, all of us would be doing better because we would be able to support one another more effectively.

One more thing -- why isn't this a post about hypnosis? Well, there's so much other content I can get up here a lot faster. And why is it taking so long -- besides the fact that I still don't have daily internet access far beyond the Facebook app on my iPhone?
` You see, my views on hypnosis change every time I learn new information on the subject. It's sort of a similar situation with my podcast -- I keep changing my views and so don't want to publish what I have put together without correcting it.

Nevertheless, I'm typing out emails and blog posts on a word processor and will add formatting to this when I put it on my blog in four days (which is when I plan on having internet access). My hypnosis post-in-progress is also saved as a Blogger draft, and I will pull it up then.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to writing about hypnosis, actually practicing it myself, as well as otherwise improving my life. For now, just remember -- Yelp is unreliable: Not only do they rip off their clients, but they mess with customer reviews as well!