Simple Randomness

Has Good Customer Service Died???

More and more I’m wondering what happened to the day when good customer service actually existed.  Now I don’t think that it’s completely dead, but it seems to be going down the tubes with a lot of companies.

Here’s an example.  A few weeks ago my wife and I went to return an item to an unnamed department store.  When we bought the item, the lady rang it up wrong.  We called her on it, but she insisted it was right.  We weren’t worried because the price was the same anyway.

So when we take it back, we decided to do it without a receipt and just get store credit so as not to be confusing.  So when we get to customer service desk, we explain to the lady what happened.  She then put her head in her hands, groaned, and said, “So you want to return this without a receipt and it was rung up wrong anyway?!”  Not cool…

What happened to the days when it was more like, “Oh, well let me see what I can do with that.” or at least something nice?!  In the end she was able to just give us store credit anyway, but first she had to talk down to us.

Granted, this isn’t always the case, but has any one else noticed that for the most part customer service seems to be lacking out there?

Why Would You Wear Sunglasses at the Gym?

So I’m at the gym today, and I saw at least 2 guys wearing sunglasses while they were working out.

What’s up with that?

Are they trying to check out girls and don’t want to be seen doing it?  Or worse, are they checking out guys and don’t want to be seen doing it?

It’s weird enough to wear sunglasses inside, but if you wear them in the gym I can only think of a few reasons other than the two above:

• You just had an eye exam but didn’t want to miss your workout (not likely)
• You think you’re cool (you’re really not, sorry)
• You think you’re some kind of poker king and forgot to take them off

I mean seriously, why would you do that? Can you tell I’m baffled???

Halloween is a Dumb Holiday

Ok ok, I know that its a little early for this, but honestly I think that Halloween is a dumb holiday.  For some reason I was thinking about it today so I thought I’d write about it.

I thought it was kinda cool when I was a kid, but that was just because of all the free candy. That’s it, nothing more.

My real problem with Halloween is this: when did it become a ’sexy’ holiday?  I mean seriously.  I thought it was all about kids dressing up like little ghosts and witches and stuff.  But I think the movie Mean Girls said it best when one of the girls says, “Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it.”  Sadly that is what this holiday has become.

For example, there’s this website called Costume Cauldron, and one of their keywords on their home page is ‘Sexy Adults.’  Even they are promoting the new sexy Halloween. Then on the home page some of the costumes that come up are ’sexy vixen pirate wench’ and ’sexy eskimo cutie.’  This is just retarded…

One thing I will say for Halloween though is that if you keep it for the kids, it still is a lot of fun.  Last year we took my son around as a monkey and he was totally cute. Toddler Halloween costumes are really cute, just because they are all about the fun of the holiday, not the bad side of it.

Needless to say, I would be totally happy if they didn’t have this holiday at all.  And sites like Costume Cauldron honestly annoy me.  But in the end, my kid loved it.  So for the time being I will still probably be involved to some degree in Halloween, just for my kids sake.  So I guess in the end there is still a need for these kinds of companies and sites.  But really, can we stop with the ’sexiness’ of Halloween already?

A Little Rant About Gas Prices and Liberals

Ok, I have to go on a little rant right now.  Normally I won’t do this, but I get so sick and tired of hearing all this stuff about how the gas prices being high is all some big conspiracy and blah blah blah.

That’s not even the thing that really bugs me right now.  Today I read a blog post (I won’t bother saying where) that went off on some ‘Big Oil’ ad that was promoting getting off foreign oil and using our own resources because demand is going to be higher by 2030 and we need to be independent.  I agree with those statements; we need to be using our own resources.

But instead, this ‘liberal’ (I’ll use that term lightly because I hate stereotypes, but it’s the only word that fits right now) had to go on the offensive because it was an ad by ‘Big Oil.’  And what was the line of attack?  If we increase our use of oil we’re going to increase gas emissions and kill the planet by then!

You’ve got to be kidding me!  The fact is that we are an oil dependent nation.  And right now we are getting high prices because we’re so dependent on everyone else in the world for our energy supply!  I agree that we need to find alternative ways of getting energy, but ethanol sure isn’t the answer.  And it seems to me that until we can get oil under control, we’re going to have a hard time really producing other reliable resources.

So why don’t we drill our own oil?  Because for some reason in this country we are paralyzed by the environmentalists and other groups that really should have no business directing policy.  It’s really quite sad.

But by biggest annoyance to people like this other blogger is that they can come up with all these reasons why we shouldn’t do something, but they have no solutions of what we should do.  They just complain about how whatever a ‘republican’ decides has to be evil and after money.  So my question to her and anyone else with that line of thinking: you got a better idea?

One solution: nuclear energy.  Nope, can’t do that, environmentalists say no.

Another solution: build more of our own refineries.  Nope, can’t do that one either because of environmentalist wackos.

Drill for oil in Alaska?  Nope, you’ll kill caribou.  Caribou?!?  You’re telling me that you would put caribou above the welfare of millions of people?  I’m sure the caribou will adapt, they have for a long time!!!

Ok, this rant has gone in several different directions.  But hey, that’s the nature of rants right?  I just get so tired of hearing about all the things that we aren’t allowed to do for one reason or another.  I’m tired of the complaints and excuses of what we can’t do but no alternative solutions to what we can do.  When does it stop?

I’m hoping that someday soon in this country we get some leaders that will do what needs to be done and not be paralyzed by those people who just want to get in the way.  We need solutions, not restrictions!

Going Over On Cell Phone Minutes

I went over on my cell phone minutes again this month!  I really wish that there was a better way to handle the whole cell phone thing, cause man do they slap you when you go over!

My big problem right now is that we don’t use a home phone.  We just use our cells for everything and so far it’s worked out really well.  But lately my wife has had to make a lot of calls to doctors offices and places like that.  And you know what that means…they put you on hold forever!

I’m starting to wonder if the doctor’s offices and cell phone companies and in cahoots with each other…maybe when you call in on a cell phone they purposefully put you on hold just so they can collect on the overage you have to pay for your minutes.  Ok probably not, but it makes you wonder sometimes!

One of My Least Favorite Things: Yawning…

Ok, this is a little bit of a gripe.  I hate yawning.  Whenever I get in one of those spells where I just can’t stop yawning I get really annoyed.  Does anyone else agree with me on this one?  I mean it has to be one of the most annoying things in the world.  You may not even feel tired or anything but your body decides that it’s time to open your most really wide and breathe funny.  I’m getting annoyed just talking about it…

Does anyone really know what causes yawns?  I don’t think I’ve ever heard a good explanation of it, at least one that really made sense.  And what’s with them being contagious?  I actually saw a Myth Busters episode about it once, and if I remember right they proved that it wasn’t actually contagious.

I better stop talking about this before I curse myself into a yawning fit…

Have Bands Forgotten How to Sing?

I have to say, I’m a little annoyed with a lot of the new music groups that are coming out these days. It seems like the art of actually being able to sing is no longer something to consider when forming a music group. Whether its rock, alternative, or whatever, have you noticed that the quality of the voice has gone down?

Now, I also recognize that this isn’t a new thing. It seems like every couple of years there is a new trend on how a singer should sound. Maybe it all comes from the grunge movement, who knows.

It just seems that a bunch of these new bands sound really really whiny. Is anyone else noticing this? What happened to the good singers? I was a big fan of Queensryche growing up, and their lead singer Geoff Tate could really sing! Heck, even Billy Corbin of Smashing Pumpkins is a better singer than a lot of these ultra whiny emo groups these days.

Ok, there are also some bands that still have good voices. I’ve been somewhat impressed with One Republic and the way they sound, cause the guy actually has a good voice. So if you’re looking to start a band, please do us all a favor and take a few singing lessons. These days it can only help you stand out!

The Weather is Officially Annoying Me

I was all excited to go for a nice walk this weekend with our new jogging stroller, but now I’m wondering if that will even be possible. Why you may ask? Because we got another inch of snow last night!

So now it’s about noon and the snow has all melted away.  Maybe I should just move to San Diego where I hear the temperature is much more stable year round…but then again I’d have to pay for the higher gas prices and everything else for living in California…nevermind!

I guess in the end I just wish the seasons would behave.  I really wasn’t expecting to see an inch of snow in mid April.  And I thought that we were all suffering from Global Warming!  If that was the case, why would I see snow in April?  Who knows, who knows.

I just hope the weather stays nice so my wife and I can start jogging again.  I’m really looking forward to that!

When Getting on the Freeway SPEED UP!!!

Ok, it’s time for another driving griping.  I don’t know what it is, but it seems like lately a lot of times when I’m getting on the freeway I get stuck behind someone that feels that they should only go 30 or 50 mph on the on ramp.  Are you kidding me?!

This is one of my big pet peeves with driving.  Let’s think about it logically: when you’re getting on the freeway, how fast is the freeway going?  Well, at least abou 65 or so we would hope.  So if I go 40 and try to merge in, is that going to work very well?  NO NO NO!!!

In fact, just yesterday this happened and I could see a semi that was coming up the right lane have to slam on his brakes so that he didn’t cream the guy in front of me (and probably me as well).

Please please please, when you are merging onto the freeway use the on ramp as an opportunity to get up to freeway speed!  In other words, you should be going about 65 by the time you get to where you should merge.

I know that a lot of us get this, and I also know that this blog post is not going to change anything, but hey; at least I got to gripe about it a little bit .

The Calendar was WRONG!!!

So I mentioned about a week or so ago that according to the calendar it was the first day of Spring.  Well man was it off!  I really wasn’t expecting to wake up to snow yesterday, but nevertheless when I looked out the window there was 1-2 inches outside.  Not cool…

Now if that wasn’t bad enough….this morning was more like a blizzard!  Really cold wind, icy roads, and there was even a small pickup turned upside down in a ditch.

Whatever happened to global warming?!  LOL, not that I believe in that whole thing anyway (at least not that it’s all man-made), but I sometimes have to wonder when its still this freezing cold and it’s almost April!  But maybe this means tha we won’t have a 110 degree summer.  Shoot, at this rate we’ll probably have snow in July!  I swear, its like the hemispheres are reversing.  It was weird enough when I lived in South America to have Christmas in the middle of the summer.  I think I’m having relapses….