Little background. My husband and I had to sell our old house because we had some troublesome neighbors. We worked our asses off to move, and get away from them. Because of the housing market at the time, we had to make sure the house had as few flaws as possible. So we had a lot of work done. Because we were just done and wanted to move.
One of those things was taking out single pane windows and putting in double pane.
Most people don't want to pay to have that done, and people scrunch their noses at houses that have old windows. Because honestly it gets pretty hot here. I called a bunch of contractors and got a bunch of bids. We wound up going with the largest company in our town. We figured...hopefully it would be the least hassle. They were huge after all. I told the company up front. I have to have a permit. I am selling this house. Like 10 times I said it. Over and over.
The guy comes out, and says there is going to be a 24 hour delay with the permit. I was okay with that until my roofer came out. Who I kind of had a history with on previous jobs. He told me to get on the ass of the window guys, because to start the job, they had to have the permit posted. So I did.
Turns out the company had let their license lapse. But on the contractor website it showed it was valid. I think he was late one or two days. He said he had paid and was just waiting for them to record it.
Did I mention they were the largest company in our town? Oh yeah.. I did.
From other contractors who I really trust, it happens somewhat often.
The payment to renew his license wasn't suppose to be recorded apparently for like 5-7 days. My windows were going to take 3 days, and I knew they would have no motivation to get the permit after the job was done. So.. I turned out having to get hissabitchy. But it wasn't like I didn't tell them a half a million times I needed a permit.
Also, they tried to convince me I had dry-rot when in fact I didn't.
Snap to today. I have a crappy back, and it is a chronic thing, so I don't really baby it. I just go to the chiropractor all the time. This guy comes in at the same time I did, and was looking at me. He looked familiar... but even though the old house was only 6 months ago... it is a million years in time for me.
It was like a million projects ago, so I really didn't know who the guy was. He outed himself to me. Asked how the windows were.. which immediately made my eyebrows narrow. Instead of being a bitch, I simply told him we moved from that house, and didn't say what I wanted to. Which was " I'd never use your f-ing company again".
So I am sitting there waiting for my "adjustment" and I could hear everything the guy was saying to my chiro who I have known for like 6 years. He wasn't being discrete or anything! And he was shaping up to be a whiney little bitch. Very loudly he was announcing that he was doing "clensings" and was describing the consistency of his bowels.
I couldn't f-ing believe it! He was practically crying about how he couldn't sleep.
At that very moment I went to hell. Because normally I don't wish pain on anyone.. no matter what kind of an asshole they are. But my first thought was "good, this guy deserves it".
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Late night sleepy husband with sleepy Saffron
I have to get a sweet bunny post in. My husband will probably hate that I chose this image.. (sorry in advance SPP) but I think it is really sweet.
Jane Doe's eye. Update.
I am going to try to make this entry as un-fragmented as I can.. but I am so pissed really. I'm not sure I can be successful. I apologize for the length.
Quick background - Jane Doe is one our bunnies, and the girl has glaucoma. Blogged about it here. After being stable for 6 months with the glaucoma, around the end of July she started favoring the eye. For example, squinting, and not keeping the eye open. At the time I started preparing myself for the possibility the eye would have to be taken. You don't hear about many cases, but I have read rabbits can do fine with one eye. Me - still not crazy about the idea. Nor was my "been through hell with me" vet. Sometimes you trade one set of problems for another. Plus.. her glaucoma by any measure appeared to be under control.
Back to her favoring of the eye. Turns out she had the smallest perceptible ulcer. About the size of a sharpened pencil head. It is obviously enough to make her unhappy. Went to my "been through hell with me" vet, and she urged me to go back to the eye specialist. Al-right fine. At that time I just had a weird feeling about them. They just seemed a little eye grabby happy. You can see from my previous entry (link) about this issue the eye actually looks pretty amazing considering.
The eye specialist debrided the eye. But never actually said that was what they were doing. Even though I watch them like a hawk. You might think the MD would say something like.. this pet is going to be in pain for a little while. But no.. I guess I am being difficult for wanting to know such things. This is what prompted the oatmeal can collar. We put her on Metacam for a few days which is your basic bunny aspirin or aleive. She was put on an exhaustive routine to get the ulcer stomped down. When I say exhaustive, I mean medication every hour.
The truth is.. guilt kept me on the hourly doses. If she eventually had to get the eye taken, I didn't want it to be because I was too lazy, or life became too complicated to do the routine. If the eye was going to go, I wanted my head to say "you did everything you possibly could - there is no way that eye could have been saved".
Jump forward to the beginning of August. I was beginning to be really pleased about the eye. It looked shiny. Her white margins seemed normal. So we went back to the eye specialist for the routine checkup. Glaucoma... wow.. so under control. However the ulcer was still as big, just not as deep as it was previously. The specialist floated the idea of again debriding the eye, and putting a coating of surgical grade super glue over the ulcer to protect it and promote vascularization. Not many sites talk about this procedure, but you can read about it here and here. I was told it would be less invasive than the original debradment, but it gave a 90% chance of knocking the ulcer out completely. Otherwise it might take 4 months of antibiotics. The specialist made it seem like "no big deal". My bad though.. I should have played 700 questions instead of 500 questions.
I had been in the waiting room 3 hours by the time I was able to be seen by the eye specialist the first time that day. They had an emergency. I completely understand. Now I am a total pet person, but by this point if I had to hear another story about how smart everyones pets are, I am going to throw myself down a flight of stairs. This was an emergency room atmosphere. Completely packed, standing room only, and everyone wanted to tell you stories. Which is great.. for like two hours. Not only that.... these people were the kind that wanted to talk baby talk to their pets in the waiting room. Now... e-v-e-r-y-o-n-e who has a pet does that. At home, so no one can see your tard ass. Each time I have been there, it is just this surreal experience. Queue the crazy cat woman on the Simson's. But only it is really tiny dogs with cones. Like all of them. And at least one eye is bulging out.
The other thing I didn't really appreciate...some woman walks in complaining about a leak. There lots of businesses in a fairly large - really old complex. Even (shudder) restaurants. Which didn't seem like a big deal, until this women walks in. I thought it was a neighboring business who shared a wall, and they had a leak together. Seems common. Oh... no.. the woman leaves, and the receptionist who I would say is a fairly simple person, tells everyone in the waiting room she has already told that woman she needs to contact management. That the woman is from the Chinese food restaurant underneath the eye specialist office. Okay....I know I probably look like super bitch because I constantly complain... but come on.. who of you out there doesn't think that is f-ing creapy weird?
I go back a couple hours later to get the super glue thing done, and spend another 2 hours there. Another woman and I talk about the whole experience at the office. I then realize she had been in the waiting room the whole time I was that morning. Off in a quiet-ish corner. Her first appointment was right before mine that morning. I'm pretty memorable.. because I don't have a tiny dog with a giant cone like everyone else. My new temporary friend has a giant dog, with a giant cone. I get home, and prepare to put the oatmeal collar on. The specialist at least says Jane will be in discomfort for 1-2 days. But still makes it seem like no big deal. Let me tell you... after about 4 days I am becoming a super pissed, because the girl went from an eye that looked good, and didn't hurt, to an animal that was bordering on inhumane treatment. I think I have royally f-ed up for making the choice to do this procedure.
I am absolutely not being dramatic or exaggerating. The eye was so inflamed I was sure she would loose it just based on trauma. I didn't want to go back to the specialist because I think they suck for not having any clue about pain management. They are only pets after-all. I figure, what can they do at this point except take the eye or put her through more pain. None of my options are good ones. I start resigning myself to having fought like crazy for this eye, only to have all that work reversed in one full swoop.
About four days ago I think I see the ulcer getting worse. The eye looks like crap, but honestly a million times better than it looked for two weeks. I take a flashlight to the eye, and wouldn't you f-ing know it...her eye is filled with veins. The area in the lower half of the eye that looks like a wave is nothing but blood vessels.
Today was Janes checkup, and I was totally conflicted. The treatment actually worked, even though it was my own little bit of hell. And hers. I got into see the specialist fairly quickly. While she was looking at the eye, as delicately as I could I admitted it was sort of hard to complain because of the results. But their pain management was non existent. I mean... come on. Scrape your eye, then put super glue on it and tell me that isn't painful. I have to be careful though, because these people are my only chance, unless I want to drive to UC Davis. Hours away. She looked directly at me and said "well, we don't have a lot of choices". Then said very little.
Um... okay. Not a "not a lot of choices" and "no choices" are at the opposite ends of the spectrum. And let me tell you.... not one of the three doctors ever brought up pain management. I kept choosing a different specialist at the office hoping I just got one of the sadistic ones. How about saying anything so your regular vet can help you manage pain! Finally after about day 10 and my girl still has not opened her eye, but she seems less painful and stable. I called my own vet an just pleaded for the future. Please I ask... even if I have to drive in every day so you can administer it, if this ever happens again, can you do something. Did I mention this was suppose to be minimally invasive? The thing is.. if my vet would have done surgery, Jane would have gotten immediate pain control. A narcotic, not bunny asperin. Because the specialist is really handling the eye issue, most vets defer to the specialist. The good news is Jane has turned a corner. Her Galcoma is in the range of a completely healthy eye. The ulcer is healing because of the new blood-flow. I am doing everything in my power so I don't have to see those f-ing people for a very long time, and my normal vet can take back over.
Quick background - Jane Doe is one our bunnies, and the girl has glaucoma. Blogged about it here. After being stable for 6 months with the glaucoma, around the end of July she started favoring the eye. For example, squinting, and not keeping the eye open. At the time I started preparing myself for the possibility the eye would have to be taken. You don't hear about many cases, but I have read rabbits can do fine with one eye. Me - still not crazy about the idea. Nor was my "been through hell with me" vet. Sometimes you trade one set of problems for another. Plus.. her glaucoma by any measure appeared to be under control.
Back to her favoring of the eye. Turns out she had the smallest perceptible ulcer. About the size of a sharpened pencil head. It is obviously enough to make her unhappy. Went to my "been through hell with me" vet, and she urged me to go back to the eye specialist. Al-right fine. At that time I just had a weird feeling about them. They just seemed a little eye grabby happy. You can see from my previous entry (link) about this issue the eye actually looks pretty amazing considering.
The eye specialist debrided the eye. But never actually said that was what they were doing. Even though I watch them like a hawk. You might think the MD would say something like.. this pet is going to be in pain for a little while. But no.. I guess I am being difficult for wanting to know such things. This is what prompted the oatmeal can collar. We put her on Metacam for a few days which is your basic bunny aspirin or aleive. She was put on an exhaustive routine to get the ulcer stomped down. When I say exhaustive, I mean medication every hour.
The truth is.. guilt kept me on the hourly doses. If she eventually had to get the eye taken, I didn't want it to be because I was too lazy, or life became too complicated to do the routine. If the eye was going to go, I wanted my head to say "you did everything you possibly could - there is no way that eye could have been saved".
Jump forward to the beginning of August. I was beginning to be really pleased about the eye. It looked shiny. Her white margins seemed normal. So we went back to the eye specialist for the routine checkup. Glaucoma... wow.. so under control. However the ulcer was still as big, just not as deep as it was previously. The specialist floated the idea of again debriding the eye, and putting a coating of surgical grade super glue over the ulcer to protect it and promote vascularization. Not many sites talk about this procedure, but you can read about it here and here. I was told it would be less invasive than the original debradment, but it gave a 90% chance of knocking the ulcer out completely. Otherwise it might take 4 months of antibiotics. The specialist made it seem like "no big deal". My bad though.. I should have played 700 questions instead of 500 questions.
I had been in the waiting room 3 hours by the time I was able to be seen by the eye specialist the first time that day. They had an emergency. I completely understand. Now I am a total pet person, but by this point if I had to hear another story about how smart everyones pets are, I am going to throw myself down a flight of stairs. This was an emergency room atmosphere. Completely packed, standing room only, and everyone wanted to tell you stories. Which is great.. for like two hours. Not only that.... these people were the kind that wanted to talk baby talk to their pets in the waiting room. Now... e-v-e-r-y-o-n-e who has a pet does that. At home, so no one can see your tard ass. Each time I have been there, it is just this surreal experience. Queue the crazy cat woman on the Simson's. But only it is really tiny dogs with cones. Like all of them. And at least one eye is bulging out.
The other thing I didn't really appreciate...some woman walks in complaining about a leak. There lots of businesses in a fairly large - really old complex. Even (shudder) restaurants. Which didn't seem like a big deal, until this women walks in. I thought it was a neighboring business who shared a wall, and they had a leak together. Seems common. Oh... no.. the woman leaves, and the receptionist who I would say is a fairly simple person, tells everyone in the waiting room she has already told that woman she needs to contact management. That the woman is from the Chinese food restaurant underneath the eye specialist office. Okay....I know I probably look like super bitch because I constantly complain... but come on.. who of you out there doesn't think that is f-ing creapy weird?
I go back a couple hours later to get the super glue thing done, and spend another 2 hours there. Another woman and I talk about the whole experience at the office. I then realize she had been in the waiting room the whole time I was that morning. Off in a quiet-ish corner. Her first appointment was right before mine that morning. I'm pretty memorable.. because I don't have a tiny dog with a giant cone like everyone else. My new temporary friend has a giant dog, with a giant cone. I get home, and prepare to put the oatmeal collar on. The specialist at least says Jane will be in discomfort for 1-2 days. But still makes it seem like no big deal. Let me tell you... after about 4 days I am becoming a super pissed, because the girl went from an eye that looked good, and didn't hurt, to an animal that was bordering on inhumane treatment. I think I have royally f-ed up for making the choice to do this procedure.
I am absolutely not being dramatic or exaggerating. The eye was so inflamed I was sure she would loose it just based on trauma. I didn't want to go back to the specialist because I think they suck for not having any clue about pain management. They are only pets after-all. I figure, what can they do at this point except take the eye or put her through more pain. None of my options are good ones. I start resigning myself to having fought like crazy for this eye, only to have all that work reversed in one full swoop.
About four days ago I think I see the ulcer getting worse. The eye looks like crap, but honestly a million times better than it looked for two weeks. I take a flashlight to the eye, and wouldn't you f-ing know it...her eye is filled with veins. The area in the lower half of the eye that looks like a wave is nothing but blood vessels.
Today was Janes checkup, and I was totally conflicted. The treatment actually worked, even though it was my own little bit of hell. And hers. I got into see the specialist fairly quickly. While she was looking at the eye, as delicately as I could I admitted it was sort of hard to complain because of the results. But their pain management was non existent. I mean... come on. Scrape your eye, then put super glue on it and tell me that isn't painful. I have to be careful though, because these people are my only chance, unless I want to drive to UC Davis. Hours away. She looked directly at me and said "well, we don't have a lot of choices". Then said very little.
Um... okay. Not a "not a lot of choices" and "no choices" are at the opposite ends of the spectrum. And let me tell you.... not one of the three doctors ever brought up pain management. I kept choosing a different specialist at the office hoping I just got one of the sadistic ones. How about saying anything so your regular vet can help you manage pain! Finally after about day 10 and my girl still has not opened her eye, but she seems less painful and stable. I called my own vet an just pleaded for the future. Please I ask... even if I have to drive in every day so you can administer it, if this ever happens again, can you do something. Did I mention this was suppose to be minimally invasive? The thing is.. if my vet would have done surgery, Jane would have gotten immediate pain control. A narcotic, not bunny asperin. Because the specialist is really handling the eye issue, most vets defer to the specialist. The good news is Jane has turned a corner. Her Galcoma is in the range of a completely healthy eye. The ulcer is healing because of the new blood-flow. I am doing everything in my power so I don't have to see those f-ing people for a very long time, and my normal vet can take back over.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Is there such a thing as too much Robot Love?
Hopefully robomowers will become mainstream like Roomba's. Friendly Robotics is even trying to capitalize on the roomba name.
We have had ours for about two years. It moved with us to the new house. Other than the first out of the box problem, it has been a really good machine. The gentleman below however seems a little too excited. Link.
The link I provided used to work. I'm going to leave it in incase it comes back. The other thing I noticed about the guy in the picture is he is wearing surgical gloves... like maybe he doesn't want to touch dirt. I can understand garden gloves.. but surgical gloves?
We have had ours for about two years. It moved with us to the new house. Other than the first out of the box problem, it has been a really good machine. The gentleman below however seems a little too excited. Link.
The link I provided used to work. I'm going to leave it in incase it comes back. The other thing I noticed about the guy in the picture is he is wearing surgical gloves... like maybe he doesn't want to touch dirt. I can understand garden gloves.. but surgical gloves?
Sunday, August 27, 2006
You've got to see these tiles!
While in the process of modeling our laundry room, and looking for design idea's, I ran across these tiles from Stone and Pewter Accents. Main site, and tile link. I certainly give them points for wow factor.
This isn't "my thing", but I have to admit, these tiles from Designer Glass Mosiacs are fascinating too.
This isn't "my thing", but I have to admit, these tiles from Designer Glass Mosiacs are fascinating too.
Saturday, August 26, 2006
CNET'S top 5 worst tech : Themselves.
Okay... correct me if I am wrong. CNET reviews technology.... right? Because from their little TIVO "CNET tips for Digital Living" series, you really wouldn't be able to tell. Inexplicably they are completely unable to moderate their sound. From trade-shows where the "executive editor" refuses to hold a microphone, and is drowned out by the trade-show noise. (wait, let me turn the sound up so I can hear what they are saying) to a transition to host Molly Wood. (Holy shit! now I have to turn it down because it is 10 decibels higher.) Back to the office, where again, the "executive editor" is much lower and muffled because techies are not hosts, and don't know how to either emote or enunciate properly. Did I mention everyone is an "executive editor"? Every episode is like this. It's like playing volume ping-pong.
I'm sort of just sport bitching here because I could choose not to watch them, but I have a business need to watch the advertising on Tivo. I'm not going to explain what it is.
So my husband decides to email CNET, because frankly we can't figure out why an entity that is in the business of reviewing technology can't figure out such a really basic issue.
Despite CNET saying they wanted our tips and feedback, he couldn't easily find just an email address. Instead he gets a feedback "form". And certainly nothing that allows you to comment about the Tivo Digital Living Series. Even if you search on their site for anything Tivo, it only allows you to give reviews for the tivo boxes themselves, not their show on Tivo.
At any rate.. back to the form. After filling out the form he gets some such error, and then the form clears itself. So you can't even fix the error, and re-submit. You have to re-type everything in again. After trying to submit the feedback form both from explorer and Mozilla it becomes clear that CNET.com will not let him use the form because of his security software not allowing a trackback.
Okay... are they kidding me?
My trouble with Seagate.
I can not even tell how you how much I hate constantly having to complain about companies. My constant bitching makes it seem like I am a really demanding person. But I really am not.
I just expect the things I buy to work for, say..... more than 3 months.
I even take some responsibility for this one because I bought some crappy technology. I just didn't know it at the time. I just saw "ooooh - 500gig disk drive". The truth is I didn't even know what the difference between serial ATA, and Ultra ATA was at the time. My bad.
So, I have taken my responsibility, now let me get on to the bitching.
Background: The first 500Gb drive we brought home was DOA. This should have been my first clue. We knew it was the drive, and not my computer, b/c we tried installing it on a couple of machines and it was dead on all of them. The store (which rhymes with Flies) swapped it right out. This was all back on May 13th.
Somewhere around the end of July my disk started acting up. I thought maybe I had a virus because my machine just started being really slow. I'm really good about keeping my anti-virus protection stuff up to date, and it turned out - no virus/spyware detected. The drive had also began running really hot. It seemed unusual that all of a sudden it would start doing that, but I read they ran hot and we got a fan just for the drive. They make them so you can just put it in the unused drive slots.
My husband had me install a hard-drive diagnostic tool called 'HDHealth'. After looking at HDhealth something was obviously wrong. The subsequent running of Seagate's diagnostic tool "Seatools" confirmed... This drive had had a heart attack and was on life support.
I knew the return process was going to suck.. it always does. So I call Seagate preparing for the worst.
I got through within a minute or two. Talked to a support guy who was super nice and offered right away to send me a new drive. I was in shock... super happy. I couldn't believe my luck. This never happens.
He says "we'll send one right out to you, let me see we have that drive in stock".[Queue ominous music and the sound of screeching of tires].
Them - we don't have that drive in stock. It will be about two weeks.
Me- You've got to be kidding right?
Them - no, there is nothing I can do about it.
Me- Okay....it isn't like my drive is a year old. This drive is only 3 months old. Do you have an equivalent drive you can send me.
Them - No I can't do that, but here is my manager's number.
(I used to work in tech support- I know this is probably the guy in the cube right next to him) But I call anyway and plead my case.
My husband and I start debating whether to just go buy a new drive and just eat the cost which is pissing me off, because while I understand hardware failures, I don't understand having to just throw away almost 300 bucks for something that has been used for 3 months.
Several days after making the call to "the manager" he calls back. I didn't think he was even going to call back at this point and I am ready to never buy another Seagate product ever. He says he doesn't have my drive type but he can send me a refurb 180 gig drive as temporary replacement until they have more 500Gb in stock. Which was really nice. Although he put it on the slowest possible shipping method and it took like 9 days to get here from Florida.
We put it in, run HDhealth and it looks pretty f-ed up too. And wouldn't you know it... it failed within 3 days.
At this point I accept that there may be something about my machine that eats drives... but I still find it hard to believe it would eat a drive that quickly without some other catistropic symtom. Especially since Seagate is having horrible failure rates right now. Here, here. Seagate themselves list the rate at 0.34. That would mean you have a 1 in 3 chance of getting a bad drive. I'm a betting person and all... but right now my odds look pretty bad.
So now it has been 22 days and no replacement drive from Seagate for my orginal drive. They are closed on the weekend. Tuesday it will be 26 days. I can't even believe I have to call and bitch at another company whom I have already been on the phone to about 6 times.
I just expect the things I buy to work for, say..... more than 3 months.
I even take some responsibility for this one because I bought some crappy technology. I just didn't know it at the time. I just saw "ooooh - 500gig disk drive". The truth is I didn't even know what the difference between serial ATA, and Ultra ATA was at the time. My bad.
So, I have taken my responsibility, now let me get on to the bitching.
Background: The first 500Gb drive we brought home was DOA. This should have been my first clue. We knew it was the drive, and not my computer, b/c we tried installing it on a couple of machines and it was dead on all of them. The store (which rhymes with Flies) swapped it right out. This was all back on May 13th.
Somewhere around the end of July my disk started acting up. I thought maybe I had a virus because my machine just started being really slow. I'm really good about keeping my anti-virus protection stuff up to date, and it turned out - no virus/spyware detected. The drive had also began running really hot. It seemed unusual that all of a sudden it would start doing that, but I read they ran hot and we got a fan just for the drive. They make them so you can just put it in the unused drive slots.
My husband had me install a hard-drive diagnostic tool called 'HDHealth'. After looking at HDhealth something was obviously wrong. The subsequent running of Seagate's diagnostic tool "Seatools" confirmed... This drive had had a heart attack and was on life support.
I knew the return process was going to suck.. it always does. So I call Seagate preparing for the worst.
I got through within a minute or two. Talked to a support guy who was super nice and offered right away to send me a new drive. I was in shock... super happy. I couldn't believe my luck. This never happens.
He says "we'll send one right out to you, let me see we have that drive in stock".[Queue ominous music and the sound of screeching of tires].
Them - we don't have that drive in stock. It will be about two weeks.
Me- You've got to be kidding right?
Them - no, there is nothing I can do about it.
Me- Okay....it isn't like my drive is a year old. This drive is only 3 months old. Do you have an equivalent drive you can send me.
Them - No I can't do that, but here is my manager's number.
(I used to work in tech support- I know this is probably the guy in the cube right next to him) But I call anyway and plead my case.
My husband and I start debating whether to just go buy a new drive and just eat the cost which is pissing me off, because while I understand hardware failures, I don't understand having to just throw away almost 300 bucks for something that has been used for 3 months.
Several days after making the call to "the manager" he calls back. I didn't think he was even going to call back at this point and I am ready to never buy another Seagate product ever. He says he doesn't have my drive type but he can send me a refurb 180 gig drive as temporary replacement until they have more 500Gb in stock. Which was really nice. Although he put it on the slowest possible shipping method and it took like 9 days to get here from Florida.
We put it in, run HDhealth and it looks pretty f-ed up too. And wouldn't you know it... it failed within 3 days.
At this point I accept that there may be something about my machine that eats drives... but I still find it hard to believe it would eat a drive that quickly without some other catistropic symtom. Especially since Seagate is having horrible failure rates right now. Here, here. Seagate themselves list the rate at 0.34. That would mean you have a 1 in 3 chance of getting a bad drive. I'm a betting person and all... but right now my odds look pretty bad.
So now it has been 22 days and no replacement drive from Seagate for my orginal drive. They are closed on the weekend. Tuesday it will be 26 days. I can't even believe I have to call and bitch at another company whom I have already been on the phone to about 6 times.
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
How NOT to retain your longtime loyal customers - in 3 easy steps. Listen up XM.
1. Make sure your web-site is often unavailable.
2. Make sure your customers are unable to manage their accounts from your web-site on the rare days you can get to it.
3. Make sure your customers know you don't give a shit if they leave or not.
Oh yeah, and irritate them by having the login screen take up every bit of a 2000+ pixel monitor, and not allow your customers to resize the screen. This is an actual screen shot from my husbands machine when logging into the XM radio web-site. The black area is not his background. It is the unused portion of their login screen.
I want to start out saying that we were early adopters. We have probably been XM customers for 3-4 years.. I don't know.... A LONG time. Well before anyone thought people would pay for radio. The relationship was flawless until this past Christmas. Today I am downright pissed about it.
Rewind to this past Christmas. My husband bought me a Delphi XM hand-held. The unit was an out of the box hardware failure. (gritting teeth) I understand failures. Look at my other entries. The hardware issue however was not the irritating part.
We replaced the unit with one from another manufacturer. We thought it would be a simple issue to switch service from the failed unit radio ID, to the new unit ID. At that time the web-site wouldn't allow for this. It was Christmas, and they were obviously under-staffed on the phones. I think it took about a day to finally get a live person on the phone.
I sort of understood not being able to disconnect service from the web-site. I'm sure it is just a need to talk your customers out of leaving. Well... despite we weren't leaving, just changing radio IDS.
Fast forward to this weekend. We sold our old car, and wanted again to manage our account. I wanted to delete the handheld, and find out what notice they needed to cancel the car. I wanted the new owners to have a little time before the radio was shut off.
Wouldn't you f-ing know it, the web-site was unavailable. The web-site not working after 7 months is absolutely unacceptable. You still can not add or delete radios online. And that would be great if when you talked to someone on the phone they actually tried to talk you out of leaving. BUT THEY DONT! As a matter of a fact, customer service did none of the things customer service does. Like try to find out why/if you're not happy.
So they transfer me over to the disconnection department. I flip out. I make sure to tell the operator on the other line I wasn't yelling at her, but it seems to me that XM doesn't want to keep their customers at all. There is no harder customer to drive away than us. I complain about the web-site, and she confirms it is ridiculous that their web-site is still not working. She apparently gets that complaint a lot.
UPDATE: I waited to publish this entry, because of some other crazy stuff I will eventually complain about.
We started getting notices from XM to give them our credit card, because our new 3 month trial would soon be up for our replacement car. (gritting teeth again) Even though I made sure to tell them to put the new radio on our old account so we could just start getting billed automatically when I called to have them manage our account last time.
We have had the new car 2 months, and I've already gotten two notices. I figured I should do something about it. Despite thinking the trial service was for a year. Whatever.. things have been crazy, so perhaps I was misunderstanding.
So... first step. Go to their web-site. Hurray! We can log in. We have a huge credit on our account. (because we are under a trial period) So why are they sending us these notices? We have our credit card on file. Crap... wouldn't you know it, I'm going to have to call customer service.
All I want from them is to link our credit card to this radio so when the trial period is over - 3 months or 12 months, whatever- they will start charging us. Did I mention how long we have been customers with the same credit card number on file? Oh yeah.. I covered that.
Apparently... customer service can not do this until a few weeks before our trial period expires. So I have to call them back. But how the F am I going to know when that is, because they are sending me notices every two weeks. By this time my husband is talking to them, due to my accelerating sarcasm. I'm not nasty... and I do laugh while I am telling him to tell them - that if our service gets cut off, I am going to call them back and completely wig out. She claims she stuck this in the notes.. I'm sure it just says difficult.
The thing is, I have had to call them 5 times this year, for things that could be simply handled from their web-site.
The answer is to change right?
Well.. I have to admit, we did get a Sirius unit very recently. The differences are pretty interesting. First...if you drive down a tree lined street. That is enough to stop your signal. Sometimes you just loose signal for no apparent reason. XM doesn't do that. The other...(tortured look) they have got me stuck in the f-ing 70's. For instance this morning flipping through the channels I was greeted with RUSH on two channels. The Beetles, (old)Santana, Led Zepplin, and I forget what else. I went though 30 channels before escaping that era. This wasn't even from the listed retro and hair band channels. Which is another 30+ channels. They have a freaking channel just dedicated to Elvis for christ sakes, and some Jimmy Buffet guy. A whole channel each!
So to sum things up.... XM customer service sucks, but the Sirius content sucks. Customer service at Sirius was actually really good. XM would be really good if they just fixed their web-site to take pressure off their customer service reps. I get the impression they get bitched at a lot. Unfortunatly I had to be one of the masses.
And frankly.. I dont enjoy it. What happen to the good old days when it took one call to get something solved? Now it seems on average it takes three... I really have better things to do with my day.
2. Make sure your customers are unable to manage their accounts from your web-site on the rare days you can get to it.
3. Make sure your customers know you don't give a shit if they leave or not.
Oh yeah, and irritate them by having the login screen take up every bit of a 2000+ pixel monitor, and not allow your customers to resize the screen. This is an actual screen shot from my husbands machine when logging into the XM radio web-site. The black area is not his background. It is the unused portion of their login screen.
I want to start out saying that we were early adopters. We have probably been XM customers for 3-4 years.. I don't know.... A LONG time. Well before anyone thought people would pay for radio. The relationship was flawless until this past Christmas. Today I am downright pissed about it.
Rewind to this past Christmas. My husband bought me a Delphi XM hand-held. The unit was an out of the box hardware failure. (gritting teeth) I understand failures. Look at my other entries. The hardware issue however was not the irritating part.
We replaced the unit with one from another manufacturer. We thought it would be a simple issue to switch service from the failed unit radio ID, to the new unit ID. At that time the web-site wouldn't allow for this. It was Christmas, and they were obviously under-staffed on the phones. I think it took about a day to finally get a live person on the phone.
I sort of understood not being able to disconnect service from the web-site. I'm sure it is just a need to talk your customers out of leaving. Well... despite we weren't leaving, just changing radio IDS.
Fast forward to this weekend. We sold our old car, and wanted again to manage our account. I wanted to delete the handheld, and find out what notice they needed to cancel the car. I wanted the new owners to have a little time before the radio was shut off.
Wouldn't you f-ing know it, the web-site was unavailable. The web-site not working after 7 months is absolutely unacceptable. You still can not add or delete radios online. And that would be great if when you talked to someone on the phone they actually tried to talk you out of leaving. BUT THEY DONT! As a matter of a fact, customer service did none of the things customer service does. Like try to find out why/if you're not happy.
So they transfer me over to the disconnection department. I flip out. I make sure to tell the operator on the other line I wasn't yelling at her, but it seems to me that XM doesn't want to keep their customers at all. There is no harder customer to drive away than us. I complain about the web-site, and she confirms it is ridiculous that their web-site is still not working. She apparently gets that complaint a lot.
UPDATE: I waited to publish this entry, because of some other crazy stuff I will eventually complain about.
We started getting notices from XM to give them our credit card, because our new 3 month trial would soon be up for our replacement car. (gritting teeth again) Even though I made sure to tell them to put the new radio on our old account so we could just start getting billed automatically when I called to have them manage our account last time.
We have had the new car 2 months, and I've already gotten two notices. I figured I should do something about it. Despite thinking the trial service was for a year. Whatever.. things have been crazy, so perhaps I was misunderstanding.
So... first step. Go to their web-site. Hurray! We can log in. We have a huge credit on our account. (because we are under a trial period) So why are they sending us these notices? We have our credit card on file. Crap... wouldn't you know it, I'm going to have to call customer service.
All I want from them is to link our credit card to this radio so when the trial period is over - 3 months or 12 months, whatever- they will start charging us. Did I mention how long we have been customers with the same credit card number on file? Oh yeah.. I covered that.
Apparently... customer service can not do this until a few weeks before our trial period expires. So I have to call them back. But how the F am I going to know when that is, because they are sending me notices every two weeks. By this time my husband is talking to them, due to my accelerating sarcasm. I'm not nasty... and I do laugh while I am telling him to tell them - that if our service gets cut off, I am going to call them back and completely wig out. She claims she stuck this in the notes.. I'm sure it just says difficult.
The thing is, I have had to call them 5 times this year, for things that could be simply handled from their web-site.
The answer is to change right?
Well.. I have to admit, we did get a Sirius unit very recently. The differences are pretty interesting. First...if you drive down a tree lined street. That is enough to stop your signal. Sometimes you just loose signal for no apparent reason. XM doesn't do that. The other...(tortured look) they have got me stuck in the f-ing 70's. For instance this morning flipping through the channels I was greeted with RUSH on two channels. The Beetles, (old)Santana, Led Zepplin, and I forget what else. I went though 30 channels before escaping that era. This wasn't even from the listed retro and hair band channels. Which is another 30+ channels. They have a freaking channel just dedicated to Elvis for christ sakes, and some Jimmy Buffet guy. A whole channel each!
So to sum things up.... XM customer service sucks, but the Sirius content sucks. Customer service at Sirius was actually really good. XM would be really good if they just fixed their web-site to take pressure off their customer service reps. I get the impression they get bitched at a lot. Unfortunatly I had to be one of the masses.
And frankly.. I dont enjoy it. What happen to the good old days when it took one call to get something solved? Now it seems on average it takes three... I really have better things to do with my day.
Time for a new project.
Well....the amnesia from our last tile project seems to have finally set in. I'm starting to fantasize about glass tiles. As if the last project wasn't easily the hardest job we have ever done. I will post an update when I get my native machine up, and files restored. So, while out trying to find design ideas we ran across these.
Now, I would never put these in my house. But I am oddly fascinated by them. They look like bubbles. I can't imagine how hideously hard the grout work would be, and how many times I would freak out trying to make it look right. Not to mention the shaving of years in my husband's lifespan when they inevitably need to be cut.
They do make me wonder what application you could use them for without making the whole thing look like a piece of crap. Which I absolutely can't. Not to mention how hard they would be to clean.
Now, I would never put these in my house. But I am oddly fascinated by them. They look like bubbles. I can't imagine how hideously hard the grout work would be, and how many times I would freak out trying to make it look right. Not to mention the shaving of years in my husband's lifespan when they inevitably need to be cut.
They do make me wonder what application you could use them for without making the whole thing look like a piece of crap. Which I absolutely can't. Not to mention how hard they would be to clean.
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Fun was had by none.
Don't believe me? Look at these faces.
I know it always seems like I am complaining about something. So far life is failing to live up to my, apparently too high expectations. This was suppose to be a tranquil day at the Montery Bay Aquarium.
The television tells me the economy is bad. So far I have yet to see anything that makes me think this. In fact, the place was so crowded, we had to leave after an hour. This was the line to get in.
Once you get to the end of the line you think you are home free.. This is the line inside.
Just to see this.
And well... maybe this.
You couldn't get close to any of the exhibits. The whole downtown was cram packed. After the constant wailing of infants. Normal children noise. Being constantly jostled, and just not being able to view the displays, I couldn't even stand to sit down in a nice restaurant in Montery. Oh yeah.. and the bumper to bumper traffic both ways, on a Sunday. Which also tells me the economy can't be that bad.
I know it always seems like I am complaining about something. So far life is failing to live up to my, apparently too high expectations. This was suppose to be a tranquil day at the Montery Bay Aquarium.
The television tells me the economy is bad. So far I have yet to see anything that makes me think this. In fact, the place was so crowded, we had to leave after an hour. This was the line to get in.
Once you get to the end of the line you think you are home free.. This is the line inside.
Just to see this.
And well... maybe this.
You couldn't get close to any of the exhibits. The whole downtown was cram packed. After the constant wailing of infants. Normal children noise. Being constantly jostled, and just not being able to view the displays, I couldn't even stand to sit down in a nice restaurant in Montery. Oh yeah.. and the bumper to bumper traffic both ways, on a Sunday. Which also tells me the economy can't be that bad.
Monday, August 14, 2006
What did the five fingers say to the face?
SLAP!
This is what AT&T is doing to Comcast at this very moment. They are taking advantage of a devastating (for the company) weakness with Comcast service.
When this happens........
People get really f-ing pissed. What makes them even more pissed? Not being able to use a land-line phone. Doesn't seem like the huge deal I am making it out to be? Be without power for 23 hours and see how far that cell phone battery takes you. Sadly.. I was one of the lucky ones... There were many reports of people being out of power for days.
Unfortunately.... you don't even have to loose power to go technologically dark. So when Comcast called a week after the power outage to sell me services, I was so pissed I told them they were the last people on earth who should be calling me.
Since moving into my new place four months ago, I have had 3 complete Comcast outages. One was do to the heat index and resulting power losses. The others.. who the F knows.
So when Comcast again called yesterday to ask about the nature of my last call, and what my customer satisfaction was. I let loose. I was so pissed about the other stuff that I forgot to even complain about HD content.
Don't I pay extra every month for HD.. yes I do. I have previously blogged about it here.
Later that day I told my husband with glee they called to let me bitch at them. Ironically at that very moment we heard an ad on TV bitching about who else? Comcast. It turns out the issue must be big enough that AT&T has run a whole ad campaign to capitalize on the weakness. Apparently that random call wasn't so random. The ad campaign must be making a difference to Comcast. I have never had them call to see what my satisfaction level was.
Unfortunately with so few choices... changing providers is a little like trying to figure out which side of the apple is less rotten.
I'm not just sport bitching. But I'd rather not go through all the trouble of switching only to find myself in a rather similar predicament. Which is why I am not currently at AT&T.
This is what AT&T is doing to Comcast at this very moment. They are taking advantage of a devastating (for the company) weakness with Comcast service.
When this happens........
People get really f-ing pissed. What makes them even more pissed? Not being able to use a land-line phone. Doesn't seem like the huge deal I am making it out to be? Be without power for 23 hours and see how far that cell phone battery takes you. Sadly.. I was one of the lucky ones... There were many reports of people being out of power for days.
Unfortunately.... you don't even have to loose power to go technologically dark. So when Comcast called a week after the power outage to sell me services, I was so pissed I told them they were the last people on earth who should be calling me.
Since moving into my new place four months ago, I have had 3 complete Comcast outages. One was do to the heat index and resulting power losses. The others.. who the F knows.
So when Comcast again called yesterday to ask about the nature of my last call, and what my customer satisfaction was. I let loose. I was so pissed about the other stuff that I forgot to even complain about HD content.
Don't I pay extra every month for HD.. yes I do. I have previously blogged about it here.
Later that day I told my husband with glee they called to let me bitch at them. Ironically at that very moment we heard an ad on TV bitching about who else? Comcast. It turns out the issue must be big enough that AT&T has run a whole ad campaign to capitalize on the weakness. Apparently that random call wasn't so random. The ad campaign must be making a difference to Comcast. I have never had them call to see what my satisfaction level was.
Unfortunately with so few choices... changing providers is a little like trying to figure out which side of the apple is less rotten.
I'm not just sport bitching. But I'd rather not go through all the trouble of switching only to find myself in a rather similar predicament. Which is why I am not currently at AT&T.
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Have people lost all modesty?
Okay.... so .... I am picking up sandwiches last week from Togo's.
Even though I can go straight to the pick-up line, the place is packed, and I decide to wait in line.
In walks a woman... who is obviously pregnant. Not the "oh when is your baby due - I'm just fat" kind of pregnant. The "shouldn't you be calling an ambulance, you're gonna pop any day now, um... I think I see the baby's head!" pregnant. Obviously very late in the stage. Absolutely no mistake pregnant.
She is wearing daisy-dukes, and a little muscle beater type t-shirt. With her stomach fully exposed. Not "my stomach is poking out". Rather - bottom of the boob to just above the pleasure patch exposed.
Think a Jessica Simpson/Dukes of Hazard amount of clothing. Okay... it could be okay right? But she is the type of girl that even in her non pregnant stage, you would look at her and go "oh girl, I'm surprised you're trying to pull that off". The kind of girl who normally has a full muffin top - bulging out of her pants. Who on retrospect might have given the "what are you looking at bitch" head snap. But that isn't the crazy part. This is California after all... we get used to people "keepin it real".
This woman...... has SAVAGE stretch marks. Not the "wow, you have some really bad stretch marks" kind. The holy shit, "you really got the genetics shaft, nothing is going to fix that" - "Did you get mauled by a bear", kind of stretch marks. I've seen burn victims with less damage. Who also by the way, would have elicited less interest.
So I look around.. and everyone who has noticed her is trying desperately not to look at her. Myself included. Everyone is trying to be respectful, and act nonchalant. But an obvious reaction is being made... followed by an obvious attempt at not having a reaction.
This woman, of course, does not notice the room wide uncomfortable-ness. Or perhaps just doesn't care..
Now don't get me wrong... I love looking at bodies. But what happened to the generation where people actually tried to minimize their flaws. Everyone doesn't have to look beautiful, but at least a general attempt at decorum should be made. Is that too much to ask?
Even though I can go straight to the pick-up line, the place is packed, and I decide to wait in line.
In walks a woman... who is obviously pregnant. Not the "oh when is your baby due - I'm just fat" kind of pregnant. The "shouldn't you be calling an ambulance, you're gonna pop any day now, um... I think I see the baby's head!" pregnant. Obviously very late in the stage. Absolutely no mistake pregnant.
She is wearing daisy-dukes, and a little muscle beater type t-shirt. With her stomach fully exposed. Not "my stomach is poking out". Rather - bottom of the boob to just above the pleasure patch exposed.
Think a Jessica Simpson/Dukes of Hazard amount of clothing. Okay... it could be okay right? But she is the type of girl that even in her non pregnant stage, you would look at her and go "oh girl, I'm surprised you're trying to pull that off". The kind of girl who normally has a full muffin top - bulging out of her pants. Who on retrospect might have given the "what are you looking at bitch" head snap. But that isn't the crazy part. This is California after all... we get used to people "keepin it real".
This woman...... has SAVAGE stretch marks. Not the "wow, you have some really bad stretch marks" kind. The holy shit, "you really got the genetics shaft, nothing is going to fix that" - "Did you get mauled by a bear", kind of stretch marks. I've seen burn victims with less damage. Who also by the way, would have elicited less interest.
So I look around.. and everyone who has noticed her is trying desperately not to look at her. Myself included. Everyone is trying to be respectful, and act nonchalant. But an obvious reaction is being made... followed by an obvious attempt at not having a reaction.
This woman, of course, does not notice the room wide uncomfortable-ness. Or perhaps just doesn't care..
Now don't get me wrong... I love looking at bodies. But what happened to the generation where people actually tried to minimize their flaws. Everyone doesn't have to look beautiful, but at least a general attempt at decorum should be made. Is that too much to ask?
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
What are you looking at?
Do not do this to your bunny unless you have a dire medical need.
Our girl Jane Doe has glaucoma in her right eye (the one you can see in the picture). After a visit to the vetrinary eye specialist (with misc pokings and proddings), her eye became very irritated, and she started scratching at it. We needed to control her ability to get to the eye.
So the challenge was: how do you get a bunny to stop scratching an eye? People with dogs have it easy -- just put on a cone, or doggles.
Bunnies however have all sorts of engineering "problems".
1. Bunnies have no discernable neck. A cone would just fall off.
2. Bunnies panic easily. They can get really freaked out. They are very sensitive in the face, and they really don't like to feel trapped.
3. Bunnies will eat anything. Including hard plastic, like a dog cone. Including things that will kill them.
This was our solution. A Quaker Oats can. (well temporary solution - She got it off within 2 hours, but she seemed to leave the eye alone) We used the lower third of the can, and cut radial slits in the bottom to allow her had to pass through it. We also cut notches for her ears and muzzle. Not only are Quaker Oats good for your heart. (allegedly!) Their containers are completely edible (except the lid) by bunnies.
She was pretty okay with it until her mate started trying to "help her". First he started tugging on it trying to get it off her. Then he thought, "if your head is in there, maybe mine should be too". I didn't get pictures of that, because she started freaking out. After seperating her from her mate, she finally settled down. Begrudingly. And as you can see from the picture, we still had the directions to cook the oats.
Fires are NOT suppose to be funny... right?
Hey Jackass! Quit setting fires.
Yes.. I am going to make jokes about it. It is funny, and no people or property have been injured. How do you not snicker when you have to talk about this fire?
Lightening sparked the blaze near the Nevada California-line. News links here.
Yes.. I am going to make jokes about it. It is funny, and no people or property have been injured. How do you not snicker when you have to talk about this fire?
Lightening sparked the blaze near the Nevada California-line. News links here.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
If you show me your Roomba, I'll show you mine.
I've been watching the steady migration of frisbybots (patent pending, patent pending, patent pending) trying to take over one country, then the next. First Canada. Then Australia, and now New Zealand (Courtesy of freitasm.)
Never in the history of the world have people been so excited to share pictures of their vacuum cleaners. Just ask flickr.
Once upon a time, if a significant other even dreamed about giving a vacuum cleaner as a gift, they would be exiled forever in the surviving partner's mind. "Yeah, I loved that person, but I had to kill them, I'm not your cleaning whore".
All of a sudden people are excited to purchase an item that previously was so completely mundane. Only clean freaks or people with OCD would brag about doing such a chore. Creative videos are popping up everywhere. This guy straps a camcorder on for a Roombas eye view. Youtube has a series of videos here. A pretty good animation assembly for a Roomba on Google video here. Roomba Wars via prasad here.
iRobot seems to be poised to be part of one of the largest industry expansions since the 80's. Not all that surprising since vacuum cleaner sales had enjoyed year over year record setting unit sales.
According to Appliance Design, "Breaking records is becoming the norm for the vacuum cleaner segment of the industry. If projections and estimates hold up, the segment in four out of five recent years will have achieved new highs in unit count. Record years and their numbers":
Never in the history of the world have people been so excited to share pictures of their vacuum cleaners. Just ask flickr.
Once upon a time, if a significant other even dreamed about giving a vacuum cleaner as a gift, they would be exiled forever in the surviving partner's mind. "Yeah, I loved that person, but I had to kill them, I'm not your cleaning whore".
All of a sudden people are excited to purchase an item that previously was so completely mundane. Only clean freaks or people with OCD would brag about doing such a chore. Creative videos are popping up everywhere. This guy straps a camcorder on for a Roombas eye view. Youtube has a series of videos here. A pretty good animation assembly for a Roomba on Google video here. Roomba Wars via prasad here.
iRobot seems to be poised to be part of one of the largest industry expansions since the 80's. Not all that surprising since vacuum cleaner sales had enjoyed year over year record setting unit sales.
According to Appliance Design, "Breaking records is becoming the norm for the vacuum cleaner segment of the industry. If projections and estimates hold up, the segment in four out of five recent years will have achieved new highs in unit count. Record years and their numbers":
- 1996-16.1 million
- 1998-16.3 million
- 1999-17.6 million
- 2000-18.5 million
- 1997 scored 15,692,000 units, only 2.5 percent off the 1996 mark of 16.1 million.
Somewhere between the year 2000 and now, things seems to have taken a dramatic turn down. Here, here and here.
iRobot has seen enormous growth even without its military segment, and is nipping at the heels of more established companies like Dyson. Despite reporting record results at years end. A large segment of its business last year came from Tokyo, but only sold about 200,000 units. Link here.
Dirt Devil was once owned by Royal Appliance Mfg Co., and acquired by Techtronic Industries in 2003, and is certainly not boasting about their vacuum cleaner sales. PDF 2005 Annual Report. Good luck.
The Kirby Company is also a pain in the ass to get current financials for. Hoovers here says 253.5mil, but who knows what year that is for. They also do not seem to be bragging about sales growth. So I guess the last major player is Electrolux, whose sales are pretty stagnant, and the German economy certainly isn't helping them.
With all this bad news, iRobot is clearly breathing fresh air into an industry covered in dust bunnies.
Embargo? What Embargo?
My personal view is that economic sanctions are never successful because you never get full cooperation. Here is an example.
This is a dessert menu from a California restaurant, one of those places where they print a new menu everyday. (I didn't feel it was wrong to take the menu, since they'll be printing a new one the next day anyway). I was a little shocked by the blatant selling of 100% Cuban cigars.
This is a dessert menu from a California restaurant, one of those places where they print a new menu everyday. (I didn't feel it was wrong to take the menu, since they'll be printing a new one the next day anyway). I was a little shocked by the blatant selling of 100% Cuban cigars.
Monday, July 10, 2006
Another reason to stay in school.
I don't sell insurance. I don't care who you get your insurance through, but if you have Farmers, you might as well get a discount.
After adding a car recently, and paying the insurance premium - I get a call from our agent. The addition apparently triggered them to look at how this car is getting paid for. It turns out Farmers Insurance thinks you got all that binge drinking done in college. If you have one of these,
From Colorado springs:
"Firefighters, Police & Law Enforcement Officers, Physicians, Surgeons, Pharmacists, Registered Nurse, Teachers, Engineers, and certain other college degrees."
you qualify for a professional discount.
This seems to be a little known discount. I will not send you to the Farmers site, because I basically gave up trying to find information about it there.
We'd been with Farmers for a few years, and had never heard such a thing. So I poked around the web to see if it was just my town, or state. Despite running across this article from 2004, I was able to find very few links which mention it for obvious reasons. I'm not sure whether to praise my agent, or stick him into the witness relocation program.
Why even give a discount if they dont want you to know about it?
After adding a car recently, and paying the insurance premium - I get a call from our agent. The addition apparently triggered them to look at how this car is getting paid for. It turns out Farmers Insurance thinks you got all that binge drinking done in college. If you have one of these,
From Colorado springs:
"Firefighters, Police & Law Enforcement Officers, Physicians, Surgeons, Pharmacists, Registered Nurse, Teachers, Engineers, and certain other college degrees."
you qualify for a professional discount.
This seems to be a little known discount. I will not send you to the Farmers site, because I basically gave up trying to find information about it there.
We'd been with Farmers for a few years, and had never heard such a thing. So I poked around the web to see if it was just my town, or state. Despite running across this article from 2004, I was able to find very few links which mention it for obvious reasons. I'm not sure whether to praise my agent, or stick him into the witness relocation program.
Why even give a discount if they dont want you to know about it?
Friday, June 30, 2006
24 Hour News Channel My Ass!
FoxNews: you SUCK! Ditto CNN! Frankly.... screw all the cable news channels. When a story like this comes through the online news sources, you might think that at least one of the news channels would give an on the hour update. Especially any who claim to be a 24 hour news channel. But no, they're all showing replays of early talking head shows.
Israel warns: free soldier or PM dies
Middle East correspondent Martin Chulov
July 01, 2006
ISRAEL last night threatened to assassinate Palestinian Prime Minister Ismael Haniyeh if Hamas militants did not release a captured Israeli soldier unharmed.
This is a huge news story, but not one mention tonight at 9:00. It truly is unbelievable. And particularly insulting that I have to get current news from Britain . Who still does their level best to support Palestine in doing anything they want without repercussion. Watch the report Here.
Israel warns: free soldier or PM dies
Middle East correspondent Martin Chulov
July 01, 2006
ISRAEL last night threatened to assassinate Palestinian Prime Minister Ismael Haniyeh if Hamas militants did not release a captured Israeli soldier unharmed.
This is a huge news story, but not one mention tonight at 9:00. It truly is unbelievable. And particularly insulting that I have to get current news from Britain . Who still does their level best to support Palestine in doing anything they want without repercussion. Watch the report Here.
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Useless Product of the Day
A Tonneau cover for a Pontiac Solstice.
The Solstice is already soft-top convertible. It has a soft cover built right in! It's right there behind the seat, taking up the entire trunk. Who is going to spend an extra $250 for this, when you can just put the top up?
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
I act like a criminal because I have allergies.
The over-the-counter sinus pill situation is really pissing me off.
My husband has childhood asthma. He takes Singular daily. Yet I still force him to help me chop down the giant mounds of honeysuckle that went into bloom about a month after we moved into this house. It was near making us pass out in an sinus-coma each time we walk out the front door. So depending on circumstance, he needs to take OTC allergy medication. As do I.
Apparently my area is an allergy nightmare. I often overhear others bemoaning this area and its pollen vortex. It actually is really windy here. There are windmills on the mountain tops a few miles away.... so vortex isn't so much of an exaggeration. Plus we often have a lot of construction dust. This often means we both take daytime allergy pills. And before bed, nighttime allergy pills. (I am an insomniac, so I refuse to take anything that will mess with my sleep.)
We had been taking Tylenol allergy pills for several years now. Both daytime and nighttime versions. They get the job done w/o too many side effects.
But of course this just happens to be the same pills that tweekers use to make methamphetamines, and new laws have been passed making it much harder to get these pills in any quantity.
The new "tweeker" laws are a hassle, but they can be lived with. It is annoying that we can only buy enough supply for a week. Whatever. What is actually worse is that Tylenol, keeps fucking with their branding. They keep changing their design, packaging and options every other month. We had bought 'Tylenol Allergy Sinus" capsules for years. Now they don't make "Allergy Sinus" anymore. Instead we get "Tylenol Allergy Complete", or "Tylenol Sinus Severe", or "Tylenol Cold Sever", or "Tylenol Hoof and Mouth Disease (Nighttime)". It seems to change every month. And no store has the same set. And none of them come in capsules anymore. It's either caplets or gelcaps or something. And now they have decided that every product has to have "cool burst" flavoring in it. These aren't chewable tablets. Why are they adding flavoring to pills that are supposed to be swallowed whole?
I could understand if adding 'cool burst' was to keep the tweekers from using Tylenol's product to make meth. BUT IT DOESN'T! It's just flavoring. Who's brilliant idea was this? Make a product that has no flavor, then add something that tastes like a bad tic-tac. Add it to every product line you have. Give none of your customers a choice. Good job Dee Dee Dee!
Apparently, even the pharmacists are frustrated. A week ago I'd had it, so I called out the pharmacist to help us find an equivalent that doesn't have pseudoephedrine, and won't keep me awake at night. He basically gave us one of those Scooby doo "Ruh-roh's". I had to ask if we were the only ones complaining about the branding issue. He confirmed we weren't. He said everyone is.
It isn't like we are brand loyalists. We have been taking the same brand because we know its side affects. They are tolerable. Other allergy medication we've tried either make us too jittery, or don't work for us. I just want the same product I've been buying for years.
So I am forced to check every store I go to, hoping they might have our old brand. In affect looking like an f-ing tweeker!
My husband has childhood asthma. He takes Singular daily. Yet I still force him to help me chop down the giant mounds of honeysuckle that went into bloom about a month after we moved into this house. It was near making us pass out in an sinus-coma each time we walk out the front door. So depending on circumstance, he needs to take OTC allergy medication. As do I.
Apparently my area is an allergy nightmare. I often overhear others bemoaning this area and its pollen vortex. It actually is really windy here. There are windmills on the mountain tops a few miles away.... so vortex isn't so much of an exaggeration. Plus we often have a lot of construction dust. This often means we both take daytime allergy pills. And before bed, nighttime allergy pills. (I am an insomniac, so I refuse to take anything that will mess with my sleep.)
We had been taking Tylenol allergy pills for several years now. Both daytime and nighttime versions. They get the job done w/o too many side effects.
But of course this just happens to be the same pills that tweekers use to make methamphetamines, and new laws have been passed making it much harder to get these pills in any quantity.
The new "tweeker" laws are a hassle, but they can be lived with. It is annoying that we can only buy enough supply for a week. Whatever. What is actually worse is that Tylenol, keeps fucking with their branding. They keep changing their design, packaging and options every other month. We had bought 'Tylenol Allergy Sinus" capsules for years. Now they don't make "Allergy Sinus" anymore. Instead we get "Tylenol Allergy Complete", or "Tylenol Sinus Severe", or "Tylenol Cold Sever", or "Tylenol Hoof and Mouth Disease (Nighttime)". It seems to change every month. And no store has the same set. And none of them come in capsules anymore. It's either caplets or gelcaps or something. And now they have decided that every product has to have "cool burst" flavoring in it. These aren't chewable tablets. Why are they adding flavoring to pills that are supposed to be swallowed whole?
I could understand if adding 'cool burst' was to keep the tweekers from using Tylenol's product to make meth. BUT IT DOESN'T! It's just flavoring. Who's brilliant idea was this? Make a product that has no flavor, then add something that tastes like a bad tic-tac. Add it to every product line you have. Give none of your customers a choice. Good job Dee Dee Dee!
Apparently, even the pharmacists are frustrated. A week ago I'd had it, so I called out the pharmacist to help us find an equivalent that doesn't have pseudoephedrine, and won't keep me awake at night. He basically gave us one of those Scooby doo "Ruh-roh's". I had to ask if we were the only ones complaining about the branding issue. He confirmed we weren't. He said everyone is.
It isn't like we are brand loyalists. We have been taking the same brand because we know its side affects. They are tolerable. Other allergy medication we've tried either make us too jittery, or don't work for us. I just want the same product I've been buying for years.
So I am forced to check every store I go to, hoping they might have our old brand. In affect looking like an f-ing tweeker!
Monday, June 26, 2006
Gay pride and womens rights!
This is coverage of the Gay Pride parade from my local news on Sunday. I have lived in this area my whole life, and fully support the gay community. But I really want to know why lesbians have rights that straight women don't?
If lesbians get to show their boobs on TV, so should straight women. (Grandma, keep your top on... no one wants to see that) Hell, these days the networks can't even show the tiniest amount of plumbers ass without it being blurred.
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Robogames 2006 Review
One of the things the Robogames people do really well is marketing. It was one of the most photographed events I have ever been to. So I am mostly going to point you to their sites.
(A few days ago when I started this entry, that was my plan. Shockingly , or maybe not so - Few sites seem to be admitting they were ever there.) So here goes my rant.
As a member of the "paying public", it was obvious we were not the people the Robogames were catering to. Honestly, there was no reason to attend unless you were competing in the battlebot competition. If you were interested in other robotic technology, there was really nothing to see. Battlebots are super cool. But also, super 5 years ago.
As you can see from the picture above, the venue was cavernous and twice the size as they needed. ( As I understand it the space isn't cheap) Thankfully they suckered a few people like me to pay 20 bucks for an event that could have been held in a school auditorium.
Behind the wall of flags were one set of viewing stands. Here. Apparently last year there were two sets. Here. And here. I didn't expect a RoboNexus size event, but one naturally thinks it might be the same size or slightly larger than last years event.
In front of that was the combat pit where teams are queuing up to compete.
Next to that was an area where teams were working on their robots, and completely blocked off to "the paying public". Here. Unless you wanted to pay $750.00. Pretty steep in my estimation. It was however the most densely populated area in the place.
Here was a very lonely guy from the Space Elevator Challenge. He didn't really have anything to show except a video demonstration that if I recall correctly came from CNN. This picture also shows how much space was really being utilized.
I was really astounded when I started reading nothing but favorable coverage.
I apparently am the only one saying the emperor has no clothes. It made me wonder if I was just being a super bitch. If that is the case, then why are there so few sites posting pictures and reviews?
There are more pictures of the t-shirts. Here, (which was more interesting than the event).
Non Battlebot robots this year Here. Last years robots here. The HItec representative is smiling here, but when I saw him, he look bored out of his gourd. He had one bot that looked functional. I even asked if he was going to get the bots up and working. I had seen their show at RoboNexus. Here, and it was a crowd pleaser. He claimed he was going to get them up for robosoccer, but I left early, and have yet to see anyone post pictures.
I have been trying to think how to write this entry since Saturday. I have really been struggling because I love the hell out of robotics. I want to think that I didn't have my expectations way out of whack. This isn't like the year 2000. (The robot dark ages). In 6 years robot forums are popping up like pimples on a teenagers face. Screw space camp, now robot camps are becoming popular. Target for christ sakes is selling Robonova kits. HT Robots-Dreams.
Target.com. I am sorry if I expect a little more innovation that what can be found at Target.
The funniest thing about the show I have to admit, was a guy I talked to briefly who was working on this bot. (Sorry, this is the best picture I could find) He asked what had brought me to the show. I replied I had been watching IRobot for a few years now. Which he seems to scoff at. Alright fine... I see his lack of fondness for them. I say well... "they do sponsor a lot of events that feature robot technology". "Those are rolling robots" he says" not walking robots. True. I say that walking robots are a much more complicated creature. Make some niceities and scuttle away.
I recall this story to my husband later who thought I was imbelishing my own snarkyness on the conversation. I tell him "no - that is what he said". My husband asks "Well all the bots in the combat pit are rolling bots". Come to think about it, I think there were 3 total walking robot there... ok 4 if you count Aibo.
My husband says that if I think I can do better, I should plan an event. And on some level I agree with that. On another level I think that isn't realistic. There is just a certain rhythem of the world. A certain yin and yang. I don't love making movies, but I love paying to watch them. If every time someone was not entertained by a movie they decided to make one themselves, there would be infinitely more crap in the world. By paying for an event, you hope you are funding people to do what they love to do, and what they do well.
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Thrianta Baby.
An absolutely fascinating history about the Thrianta rabbit breed here.
Once brought to the edge of extinction by World War II after the Germans invaded the Netherlands. It is said they were smuggled back to Holland in empty coffins meant to hold soldiers for re-burial.
All of the rabbits you will ever see on this site are house rabbits who lead pampered lives.
Here is a picture where the sun is not shining through her ears.
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Comcast... AGAIN.
I have had to deal with Comcast six times this month, and let me just say... it is pissing me the fuck off. I apparently have nothing better to do than sit on hold with Comcast. Let me just start out by saying I understand outages and equipment failure. Stuff breaks down.
Apparently all the time.
If you have read this blog, you know it is an ongoing issue with us. I don't know what the fuck it is. My husband and I do research. (pre-shopping) We don't buy bottom of the line....
Anyway... I digress.
If hadn't had to deal with them 4 other times this month I would be less close to the road called livid when this morning my net, cable and landline went dead.
Let me just say again... I understand outages.
What pisses me off to no end is that they refuse to tell you when they have an outage, system convert, or whatever. A customer likely will still be pissed off, but they will pissed off and go away. Instead they insist on having you call back on average 2-3 times. Then come up with creative ideas on how to get the support people to just tell you if there is a widespread problem.
I will admit, when my house goes technologically dark, I'm going to be surly. But at least I haven't lost time on hold. Wasted a chunk of time playing guessing games with support, and generally livid in the end they just didn't say there was an outage.
It isn't like we really have a lot of choices, so telling customers they are having a fucking problem wouldn't make that much of a difference.
I know... I know.. I am being overly sensitive. Maybe someone hit a pole down my street. Playing 50 questions is appropriate.
There must be a lot of people in my small town plowing into underground cable lines. I also find it totally unreasonable when they have a failure that all their services fail. Again, not an isolated incident.
In another event earlier this month our HD cable box starts acting up. As you can see here, this also is not an isolated incident. So we take the box in and swap it out.. really thinking nothing of it. Because we have been through - I don't know, close to 4 HD boxes since my entry on 10/9/05. Since we were still getting digital static with the new box I called customer service.
After being on hold 40 minutes or so, the support guy comes on, and I say in a jovial tone "Hi (whatever the support guys name was) you guys have to be having a system wide problem". I was on hold for 40 minutes". To which I get an uncomfortable laugh. He then takes me through the motions of rebooting my box. Finally after about 10 minutes he says " you asked if we were having a system wide problem, last week they switched everyone over to a fully digital signal and lots of people are having problems".
Well.. okay. I am a little surprised this would be our problem, because half of the house is working fine. We set up an appointment for 3 days later because if I have to swap out another box, I am going to freak out.
When they tech comes out, she is about ready to slit her wrists. She confirms that the system switch has made her life completely miserable. Comcast apparently didn't inform any customers of the switch, and anyone with copper coax needed to be restrung. Which apparently half my older house was wired with.
I understand I would have had a tech come out, but it would have been nice to get that handled on the 1st or second calls.
Then... I just have to bitch again about the f-ing HD situation. It has been 10 months since we got HDTV. They still have the same f-ing 20 channels. Roughly half of them still sports content. At least half of the time, what is listed to be on - isn't. It would be super out of this world, if they added one channel every 6 months. That is all I ask.
Apparently all the time.
If you have read this blog, you know it is an ongoing issue with us. I don't know what the fuck it is. My husband and I do research. (pre-shopping) We don't buy bottom of the line....
Anyway... I digress.
If hadn't had to deal with them 4 other times this month I would be less close to the road called livid when this morning my net, cable and landline went dead.
Let me just say again... I understand outages.
What pisses me off to no end is that they refuse to tell you when they have an outage, system convert, or whatever. A customer likely will still be pissed off, but they will pissed off and go away. Instead they insist on having you call back on average 2-3 times. Then come up with creative ideas on how to get the support people to just tell you if there is a widespread problem.
I will admit, when my house goes technologically dark, I'm going to be surly. But at least I haven't lost time on hold. Wasted a chunk of time playing guessing games with support, and generally livid in the end they just didn't say there was an outage.
It isn't like we really have a lot of choices, so telling customers they are having a fucking problem wouldn't make that much of a difference.
I know... I know.. I am being overly sensitive. Maybe someone hit a pole down my street. Playing 50 questions is appropriate.
There must be a lot of people in my small town plowing into underground cable lines. I also find it totally unreasonable when they have a failure that all their services fail. Again, not an isolated incident.
In another event earlier this month our HD cable box starts acting up. As you can see here, this also is not an isolated incident. So we take the box in and swap it out.. really thinking nothing of it. Because we have been through - I don't know, close to 4 HD boxes since my entry on 10/9/05. Since we were still getting digital static with the new box I called customer service.
After being on hold 40 minutes or so, the support guy comes on, and I say in a jovial tone "Hi (whatever the support guys name was) you guys have to be having a system wide problem". I was on hold for 40 minutes". To which I get an uncomfortable laugh. He then takes me through the motions of rebooting my box. Finally after about 10 minutes he says " you asked if we were having a system wide problem, last week they switched everyone over to a fully digital signal and lots of people are having problems".
Well.. okay. I am a little surprised this would be our problem, because half of the house is working fine. We set up an appointment for 3 days later because if I have to swap out another box, I am going to freak out.
When they tech comes out, she is about ready to slit her wrists. She confirms that the system switch has made her life completely miserable. Comcast apparently didn't inform any customers of the switch, and anyone with copper coax needed to be restrung. Which apparently half my older house was wired with.
I understand I would have had a tech come out, but it would have been nice to get that handled on the 1st or second calls.
Then... I just have to bitch again about the f-ing HD situation. It has been 10 months since we got HDTV. They still have the same f-ing 20 channels. Roughly half of them still sports content. At least half of the time, what is listed to be on - isn't. It would be super out of this world, if they added one channel every 6 months. That is all I ask.
Monday, June 12, 2006
Alien Monument.
I think aliens are secretly living among us. Why else would they have built this alien friendly - gas station quickie mart in the middle of nowhere? They can fuel up... get a few Twinkies, and be out before anyone sees. I hope when our robot overlords find out, there will be some ass kicking. Now that would be some good TV. Or a good reality show. Set them up in the same house with nothing better to do than get all hissabitchy with each other. Maybe there could be a house romance.
Update on the Alien Mart: I am so bummed! I've driven by this place a half a dozen times and never stopped to get anything inside. I did a search to see how redundant I was being. Because, lets face it, most things probably have been blogged about a million times. I was glad to see, I wasn't just one of many, beating this thing to death. There were a few interesting links of note though. Here and here. I will have to stop inside the next time I drive by the Tower Mart.
Open today.
I am so giddy. This is the first paraphalaenopsis I have not killed. Yeah.. techies can grow things too!
Paraphalaenopsis labukensis x Kaseem's Delight.
Paraphalaenopsis labukensis x Kaseem's Delight.
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