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SammyD's Rants rant Archives


November 5, 2008

The time has come to savor a victory. However, this cannot last very long.

We are at a turning point in history, and what happens over the next few years will be very telling about the future of the country. I will not deny that I was moved to action and actually donated money (not a ton) to help Obama achieve victory last night, but when it comes to it, it's time to face facts.

We are in a crisis. Not just a perceived crisis, but a real one. The wars, the economy, and the future hang in the balance of what is going to happen. The groundwork laid here (revamping, economic regulations, changing the focus of social issues, and perhaps new supreme court justices), can have a huge impact on the future.

Anytime when any one group has amassed such an amount of power, it can cause a lot of problems. As is very evident by 6 of the past 8 years.

Remember that power is fleeting in this country, and even if we are unable to get all the action items of the Plan done, unless significant progress will be made, people will remember.

I have wonderful hopes for the future, but know that power can corrupt and if it does, I'll be voting people out of office, just like I helped vote them in.

Now as to people and their opinions, scanning through comments on both a local news site and a national "news" site, and it still shocks me as to how misinformed people are. I can understand challenges to the ideas and what will be best for the country, but using name, race, supposed religion, and just outright lies and restating them as fact is just not the way to do things. If you read something, even if it sent to you by a friend, you need to check it for facts.

One of my new favorite sites over the last while here has been FactCheck.org. It cites where it gets information from and doesn't take facts for granted.

Anyways, it is time to bring a bitter time to a close and work toward the future. Celebrate a bit, then take the signs down...all of them. There is a lot of hard work ahead.

Let us once again become Americans to move our country forward into the future.

Posted by SammyD at 12:50 PM | Comments (0)



October 20, 2008

If I am to believe conservative pundits, apparently the following statement is true:

If you are black and do endorse Obama, even if you have reasons, it must be racial.

If you make the following adjustments:

If you are not black and do not endorse Obama, even if you have reasons, it must be racial.

Does that also apply?

Why is this even a factor?

I find it upsetting that people cannot even make a decision in their own mind, where before they would be trusted to be based upon the evidence and issues, but now that it's against what they're supposed to be saying, it obviously can't be that...it has to be something else.

Posted by SammyD at 9:35 AM | Comments (0)



August 30, 2008

In driving home from lunch the other day, with my boss, he reminded me of one thing that I had forgotten about.

With a justice in the 80s, and 4 in their 70s, whomever is the next president may have a huge impact on the future of this country by the possible appointments. This is an important thing that I hope that the Clinton Democrats who are still upset about the choice for the candidate realize they are making.

Anyways i heard parts of the speeches of both Clintons and Biden, and all of the Obama speech. But being that they are available on podcasts, I downloaded all of them and will be listening to them in their entirety. To give the RNC fair time I signed up for theirs when they are available.

Posted by SammyD at 9:24 AM | Comments (0)



August 22, 2008

In looking at the Des Moines Register's website yesterday, I read an opinion of someone who was complaining about the tax breaks given to both Microsoft and Google announced plans to build huge data centers in the state of Iowa. The complaint is that for the mere support of 50-75 high paying jobs per facility, and a burden on our electrical system we are trading off for huge tax breaks.

For me, this goes much deeper.

First, Google and Microsoft, even if they hire outside labor, that labor will be spending money when they are building the facilities. Being that these are huge, it will probably end up being a boon to local contractors that probably have been hurt by the downturn in the housing market (while in Iowa it hasn't been as bad as other places, it certainly has had an affect).

Second, because they are coming, there will be an uptick in investment in the infratstructure of both the electrical and internet infrastructure of Iowa. I know that Iowa has a few initiatives to build large scale wind farms, and I'm a big fan (ha ha) of that. We are used to cheap electrical prices, and I don't want that to change, but the demand from both of these, while it will be big, will only prod companies to further invest in the power generating capabilities of the state. As far as the internet goes, Iowa does not have some huge hubs of where internet traffic goes. If you take a look at the map, places like Minneapolis, Chicago, St. Louis have quite a number of giant pipes that go through their city. Because you would have both companies wanting multiple connections through multiple routes to the internet (to avoid things such as fiber cuts, or etc), this will prod development to bring multiple large lines to Iowa.

Having more cheap power and more redundant places to get to the internet will look very tempting to other companies that may be considering a place to put people for an IT company. Iowa has a fairly well educated workforce, but we still loose a lot of young people because a lot of the type of jobs that people want aren't here...but there is no reason why they couldn't be.

I'm thrilled that they're both coming and I have high hopes with what may follow and be spurred on by both Google and Microsoft building data centers here.

Posted by SammyD at 8:43 AM | Comments (0)



July 28, 2008

Tonight, Gracie (the cat) proceeded to ruin a few mementoes from college. Though all of them are fairly minor, they have made the cut of clutter over the years. The highlight of which was a pen that my youngest sister brought back from Russia for me.

I'm a bit more then pissed (especially in the attempted recovery I was basically pissed on, since urine flowed from the plastic drawers onto myself), and I don't know how much more I can take.

This is not the first time that Gracie has peed. She's peed on my sandals (ruined), at the front door (we now have items there to make it less then comfortable to pee in the corners). She then proceeded to pee at the base of the basement stairs...not once, but twice. After the second time, Shannon put a litter box there...and while she went in there for a while...apparently that was no longer good enough.

Posted by SammyD at 8:06 PM | Comments (0)



May 19, 2008

For as much crap as I've taken over the years from being from the backwaters of Iowa (even if the smallest place I've lived was Ames at around 50,000 people), all I can say is that at least I'm not from West Virgina...The interviews they had from people there are just shockingly misinformed. From what I've read, it didn't take much for the reporters to find those people.

Yesterday, my dad, youngest sister, Lovina, and her two girls drove through and I fed them dinner. It was nice, but the children were obviously a bit restless, considering they have driven from California (Lovina's staying with my parents while her hubby finishes up the last parts of his military training).

Saturday, I missed out on Django's preview (My boss used the tickets in my name, said the food was great), but I had the opportunity to go see Shannon's niece and nephew in the Cherie's Dance Studio Recital. It was...well...long. Obviously parts of it was cute (the parts with them in it) and parts were interesting (the elite dancers are pretty good), but over all, by the end of the night I was anxious to go home (2.5+ hours is a long time to sit). As a note to my siblings who wonder why I don't go to their children's activities. If we can drive to it, and you give us enough notice and we're not already doing something, then we'll consider it. But if you call me the week before and ask me to attend, don't be surprised if we can't make it.

Our upcoming camping trip with friends, got it's location changed from the Decorah area, to much closer to home, and with the price of gas, I'm quite happy about that.

My foot/ankle is betterish, though there is still some residual pain...I thinking about seeing the doctor again this week...

Posted by SammyD at 9:30 AM | Comments (0)



April 15, 2008

Ok so last week...or the week before I got a new phone for work (two year replacement plan)...We switched from a meh nokia phone, to the Samsung SCH-U340.

I gotta say that I hate this phone. First off, the user interface (I don't know if this is US Cellular or Samsung) is often counter intuitive. Text messages are annoying to create and the ringer settings for messages should be, I don't know, with the other ringer settings?, but no it's in a separate settings only for messages. I can see why you do that, but if you are gonna have settings under messages, shouldn't you still also have them in the settings?

It's a folding phone and at the back near the top, it came with a sticker that said, basically, this is where the antenna is, please don't put things over it (like my fat fingers). So when I hold the phone, lets just say that my finger naturally crosses that zone. Then there are two sets of buttons placed on the side of the phone. One set controls the volume (ringer when not talking, loudness when talking), while the other controls the camera and speaker phone. Now I haven't had this problem, since in my left pocket where I keep my phone, I generally don't keep other items, however, Brandon, has taken many many pictures of the inside of his pocket. He finally figured out how to lock the phone, but he says it's a gigantic pain in the ass (and it doesn't lock everything, just most things).

So because of the button placement, I've often changed the volume of the speaker while talking on the phone, with out intentionally doing so....it's annoying. Both sets of button are where my fingers naturally go sometimes when I'm covering up the antenna and almost always, if I make the effort to not cover the antenna....

Basically the phone sucks...but I guess that's what I get for the no money I pay for it and the no monthly bill I have (work pays). Hopefully the Blackberry trial will be over soon and I'll get one of those instead (or something else better).

Posted by SammyD at 9:32 AM | Comments (0)



March 24, 2008

So we headed over to Cedar Rapids for easter. The drive over wasn't too bad, though there seemed to be a plethora of drivers who were in such a hurry that they had to drive like extreme jackholes...

We stopped first and Shannon's parents and chatted while they ate dinner. Sean was feeling under the weather (ear infection) but Sheighliegh (sp?) seemed to be as chipper as normal.

It was pretty fun...good to catch up

We headed over to my parents around 3 to have a late lunch/early dinner. At my house the attendance was fairly light, comparatively, with only my parents, us, Jed and Stephanie, Joseph and Isaac for a total of 8. Josephy made a smoked a leg of lamb and we had quite the setting of sides. For dessert we had pie, pumpkin (mom still has lots and lots of pumpkin) and basically a chocolate nut fudge pie...both in my grandma's crust recipe (made with lard!). Dinner was great, the lamb was smokey, lamby, and juicey. Big fan. I also got to try Joesph's attempt at BBQ sauces. One he wanted to have a root beer undertone, but wasn't able to achieve it, although it was still a pretty good sweet sauce. The second was a mustard based sauce w/ bacon...it was very good. In fact at a recent church potluck, he was asked many times for the recipe....

After dinner, we chatted a while, and then we headed home. Traffic was much worse coming on, including an incident with a douche on the south side of CR, in a crappy looking red Hyundai Elantra, got on I380 on the Highway 30 on ramp, proceeded to cut me off, accelerate, and then exit at the VERY NEXT EXIT...

There were numerous people that were in such a hurry, that they had to drive like total jack holes, to gain a mere car length. When I think about the tickets that I have received over the years, which I've received many, I get a little miffed, that my speeding is ticketed, but these guys driving relatively recklessly is not. I don't generally drive in such a future fashion, and yet I'll get dinged for 12 over...oh well.

Posted by SammyD at 11:32 AM | Comments (0)



March 18, 2008

So I got my last statement from mediacom, telling me that my balance is $0.00...why does this warrant an entry?

In the "For Your Information" section of the the following was printed:

Your account is seriously past due. Immediate action is required. Please call our office today to avoid further collection activity.

Seriously? Are you gonna try to collect the lack of money I owe you?

You'd think they'd have something in there that would basically state if amount owed = 0 then this message cannot display...

*sigh*

Oh well...

Posted by SammyD at 5:01 PM | Comments (0)



February 29, 2008

Well I guess I don't have much bad to say about mediacom, 2/3rds of my last payment came back. So I guess that's a good thing. I got the check about a week ago.

I'm sick of winter. The snow, then the warm up, then the icy snow, then a warm up...I heard we're over 50 inches for this winter...which, while isn't record breaking, is quite a bit above normal.

So with the kitchen cart, the saga continues. I finally opened up the big box that contained a door and two hinges...quite the over packing. To find out the door was the wrong one...but I only found it after I had to break the door that was on there (with the mis-drilled holes), to try to get it on. So I called and another door is on the way...hopefully for the last time.

I got my new glasses today. I got them from Russ' Uptown Optical, where I had what I think is the best eye exam I've had, and then proceeded to drop a chunk of change (mmm...pre tax dollars) on the new ones. They're pretty nice...light and the new coating on them makes the outside look quite a bit better.

I took the day off...I'm starting to like this every other Friday off thing...and considering I can do that and still gain time in my PTO bank (mine is 87% full).

Posted by SammyD at 1:17 PM | Comments (0)



February 20, 2008

Recieved this email about a day ago:

Thank you for your recent email to our Customer Service Department and providing your account information so that we may access your account. Please disregard that billing statement that states that you owe a balance with Mediacom Communications. You actually have a credit refund on your account this should be on its way to you very soon.

If you need further assistance or have any additional questions please feel free to contact us via e-mail and we will be happy to assist you, but please be sure to include your original email for reference. Or you may contact us through our Customer Service Department at 800-332-0245, open 24 hours a day, seven days a week for your convenience.

Thank you.

Ben S.
Mediacom Customer Service
E-Mail North Central Division

Certainly not a direct answer to my question, but does lead to the right resolution.

Posted by SammyD at 8:08 PM | Comments (0)



February 15, 2008

Got the paper bill from Mediacom today...my patience is running out.

Posted by SammyD at 8:42 PM | Comments (0)



February 14, 2008

So I recieved this from Mediacom:

Your Feb 12, 2008 Mediacom statement is now available for online viewing and payment. View your bill statement at www.mediacomcable.com.

Automatic Bill Pay is Available! You can now authorize Mediacom to automatically debit funds from your checking account or charge your credit card to pay your cable bill in full each month. If you believe this email was sent to you in error, please contact customerservice@mediacomcc.com.

Regards,

Mediacom
Customer Service


Mediacom Communications Corporation 100 Crystal Run Rd Middletown NY 10941

I went to their site, tried to login and got this message:

Your account is inactive at this time. To activate your account, please enter in your account number and select the continue button.

So uh...I submitted a customer service form...

This is getting very funny...

Posted by SammyD at 9:12 AM | Comments (0)



February 10, 2008

In a move to piss me off further, Mediacom has sent me a bill for the next months service.... This is almost exactly 1 day shy of 2 weeks or when I dropped off my equipment at the Mediacom office (I still have my receipt for dropping it off).

According to what I have already paid for, I still have a week left of service. So that means they owe me a refund for nearly 3 weeks (just 1 or two days shy (depending on if you count the Monday as a day I have to pay for or not).

I called and had the direct pay removed my account and the person told me not to worry about it...but until I get a refund for services not used, this is not finished.

I did receive a call to try to get my business back (which means that at least somebody in that company knows I ended my service), but when I asked the the caller what they had in the way of HD offerings, she didn't have any information on that. Not only on what their plans are, but what they currently had. You'd think that in this day and age, it'd be something you'd have information on and be prepared to answer questions for.

We'll see what happens. I guess will tell if I ever go back to Mediacom...for anything...ever.

Posted by SammyD at 6:49 AM | Comments (0)



October 14, 2007

Well, Last weekend we went down to the Wells Fargo World Food Festival (associated with the World Food Prize)...not just one night, but two. It much much bigger then the year before and because of the warm weather, quite a few people made it down to it as well. We hit Africa, Ecuador, Russia, China and India. Everything was very good, and it was fun to go down and have such a variety of foods. The only problem, I think, was that I think the vendors weren't expecting so many people, so there were a few food shortages.

Good event, if it grows like it has been, it'll soon be quite huge.

I took this past Friday and coming Monday and Tuesday off and decided to use the time to do some work around the house that I've been slacking off with....however the weather has decided to not cooperate, so I haven't gotten most of the things outside that I planned on doing. I did start repatching the crack between the driveway and the house, but after dropping quite a chunk of change on concrete crack filler, I decided to go a cheaper, but because of the weather, I have not been able to finish. Hopefully I'll be able to get it in there soon enough. Friday night, I headed over to the Boelman's to get a few ladders, and then proceeded to spend a few hours shooting the breeze with Brandon. It reminded me as to how much I miss "outside work" Brandon.

Yesterday, we went up to the Hoffman's to celebrate their daughter's, Savannah, first birthday. It was a fun time, though, chilly, but good. We had fun going shopping for a baby girl (almost bought her Iowa State clothes too), and ended up spending a bit more then we planned on, but that's cool. I'm sure they'll get used, and passed on. We came home and caught up on our DVR recordings (almost).

This morning I got up quite early, and goofed off until Shannon got up. After she ate lunch, we started peeling the paint of the ceiling. We got most of the problematic places, and we'll sand down some areas, to make the transfer over. Then the fun began. I noticed that an area in the living room, was a bit damp, and in a bit of checking, found a china bowl, placed beneath the tub drain to catch leaks...

Yeah, I can't believe this crap either. I plan on calling our regular plumber to get an estimate...or at the very least finding out how much water actually collects in that (now empty) bowl...

Then while going downstairs to get something, I noticed that the floor drain in the basement was a bit backed up, so I quickly stopped the washing machine and then closed the door, just to wait for it to go down a bit. Wanting to use some drain cleaner, I decided to use a bucket to get the water up off the floor, and after making several trips up the stairs to dump excess water in the sink, and then figuring out that the water was staying exactly where it was at...and even form the drain upstairs was coming back form the upstairs. So we ended up dumping the water out into the yard, to get it down to the level where we could use the drain cleaner.

Not that there was any point to using the drain cleaner, since it ended up not working...even after using an entire bottle.

So after waiting quite a while, I called Roto-Rooter's local number...and...well...got nothing. It rang and rang and then hung up on me. I called the national number, ended up in the same place, but this time I left a message...after waiting a bit, I decided to call somewhere else, and in looking found Mr. Rooter and called them. Turned out they have a newly minted franchise over in Waukee. And because they picked up the phone and answered my call, the proceeded to get my business.

He came in the time frame that he stated, he wore little protective coverings on his shoes. He had a uniform, and a well placed badge with his picture and name on it, all stating a level of professionalism that I tend to like. He even had wheel coverings for his electric snake thing. He came with a list of flat prices for things. So if he's there for 5 minutes or 5 hours, doing X costs this much...so no overtime, which is nice. He was also very personable too.

So on further inspection, he decided what to do and went to work. After unsealing the main drain, he quick called me over to show how much build up was inside the pipe, which probably explains why it was clogged.... He went to work, and in about an hour or so, water was flowing freely from our basement sink into the floor drain and out into the sewer system. We paid for it and they left (I thought the price was quite reasonable for a Sunday night). I made sure he knew that his good customer service left a good impression on me.

Over the course of the day, we talked about our options with the house. It got especially bad today, with all the things breaking, we even discussed the possibility of moving into a much smaller/cheaper place, or even an apartment, until we can get rid of some of our larger debts (wedding, school, my car, and whatever would be left from selling the house). Anyways, I think, we, once again, decided to tough it out for another few years (3 probably) before we try to find a place that we both can live with.

Posted by SammyD at 9:40 PM | Comments (0)



September 1, 2007

It is easy to throw around words like freedom. People often forget what this actually means. Freedom is often portrayed like it is maintain what the current way of life. Shopping, mowing the lawn, driving your car, filling up with gas, just keep on keeping on like there is no problems. Lock away the problems, anything wanting to take away money from the big corporate donors is deemed to be illegal.

This is not freedom.

I'm tired of my rights being limited, just because you don't like what happens. If you do not like what you are hearing, it doesn't make it wrong, not should it be illegal. People have a right to say things, if it challenges your beliefs, Good! If your beliefs can't take a little hit, then maybe they need to be reevaluated. Just because a book has supposed questionable material, doesn't mean it shouldn't be read. Recently around here, another book was challenged because some person didn't like depiction in the book. Books are about what the author wants to portray or experienced. There are all parts of life out there, what can it hurt to know that there are people that have had awful lives, or are questing the very foundations of our lives. People have all kinds of experiences in this world, and not all of them are suburban living. Learn about them, understand what is going on and open your mind a little bit to the world around you. I say that you can always find nuggets of truth, occasionally, from people that you don't agree with (a friend recently pointed to a Newt Gingrich article that I found interesting).

I'm tired of "pundits". I use quotes because I cannot consider these people experts or opinion leaders. The point they use is that they say the same thing over and over and over. Therefore, since everyone is saying it, it must be true. Keep the point short, keep the words similar, and then it'll get across to the masses. It's never that simple. Basically what is happening is that we are being led like cattle using red herrings (gay marriage, illegal immigrants, freedom, etc). If you elect the other guy, they'll force your child to get married to a gay illegal immigrant. You don't want your freedom to have grandchildren be limited do you? Come on! It's just silly. And what I can't believe more, is the people that buy into the nonsense.

I'm tired of single issue voters. You cannot only be concerned about one issue. It's just obnoxious. There is more to life then guns, abortion and kids. If you vote on one issue, that means you ignore all others. So your candidate may be against abortion, but they're also for you spending your life in a work camp...I mean happy camp. If you don't look at the whole of the candidate, then you shouldn't vote. Every time I see one of those "I'm voting for kids", it makes me chuckle, cause it makes me think that that maybe who they are voting for has the brain of a child...

I shouldn't have to trust the the government is doing right. If I'm interested, I should be able to get reports on the topics that I am interested in, easily from a non-partisan organization. I understand that somethings need to be secret (troop movements and what not), but why can't I have reports on the inner workings of the government? Why do I have to ask for it?

It just makes me tired.

Posted by SammyD at 5:40 PM | Comments (0)



August 7, 2007

At what point is it ok to smack someone upside the head and tell them they need to step out of the early 90's and step into the new century. I know I don't have time to be a part of the solution, but what can you do when you are certain they are moving down the wrong path?

Documents? Seriously? You mean things that anyone can edit and change and format in any way they want? Something that's hard to search through a whole pile of them? Something that can't really keep an effective history of changes?

And for someone that was trying to stress reporting, how easy is it to build reporting off of documents that can be so random in their format?

Gahhh...

Posted by SammyD at 9:51 AM | Comments (0)



July 23, 2007

Attention Big Ten Network and Mediacom.

There are enough things in my life to pay for, having a bunch of Big Ten football games that I don't want, and am not willing to pay for, is not one of them. Please note, if I am forced to do this, I will have to reevaluate my cable package.

Posted by SammyD at 9:07 PM | Comments (0)



July 6, 2007

Dear Chocolates El Ray website,

I have really enjoyed the chocolate that I've recently bought form one of my local stores. I have recently used your chocolate in one of my favorite recipes, the smell and the taste of the chocolate certainly made me desire to use more of your chocolate.

I also purchased some of your ICOA White Chocolate, which I tried to use, making your white chocolate brownie recipe on your website. I consider myself a fairly competent cook, most of my creations, following recipes or not, go over well...and I am probably a tough critic on myself. I wanted to understand the directions, but they are just not very well written.

I had to make several guesses (Flour mixture?, does that mean the flour and salt?; What is the pan size?; How am I supposed to know if they have cooked, what do I test to see if it is done?;) as to how to actually prepare the brownies.

They are cooling right now, and even though the batter taste test before I put them in the oven seems like they should be good, one cannot be sure. You could take a fine example from the Scharffen Berger website and the way they have recipes there.

Thanks,

sam

Posted by SammyD at 2:16 PM | Comments (0)



June 10, 2006

How stupid do software companies think we are?

I was shopping for some software for my new mac and doing this online. They have two options for buying their software. You can download it, or you can have a box (like normal) sent to you. One you get right away, the other you have to wait.

Here's the thing. When I originally put the downloaded version in my cart, it came with a recommended CD backup of the software already on the order...for an extra 16.95$.

Since when does a disc cost this much? Where are the savings for buying the downloaded version? It's the same price as the regular version (99.95$), so the only point that I would actually save money is in the shipping.

But here's the thing, if I buy the package version, for the same cost at the apple store, which I'll be at later today anyways, I'll get a "backup CD" and a box and probably a book, without having to pay shipping then either. And it's certainly not gonna cost 4.95$ (the cost of the 2 year extended download service) to get in my car and drive across town.

How about you give me a discount, since you are only selling your software, and not actually anything physicial that you have to produce and store. Say 10% maybe 15%? Then I actually have incentive to buy the downloaded software. I know it doesn't cost THAT much to download data, espically since you are already paying for the bandwidth to host your website.

Posted by SammyD at 7:32 AM | Comments (0)



October 12, 2005

I was looking at the old slashdot this morning and ran across this.

So not only do I find the idea obnoxious, i find it just unreasonable. Besides, if say I am accountable, what's gonna happen? Am I gonna go to jail just cause I forgot to end a session or etc? Are they gonna fine me? Hold me accountable for the losses?

I'll tell you what something like this could do.

1. Remove a lot of people from the software industry.

I imigine that a lot of people won't even want to deal with this anymore, so they'd probably find something else to do.

2. Increase the pay for the programmers that are willing to do it.

Since there would be less programmers, then there would probably increase the pay to current programmers.

3. Insurance policies to cover lawsuits.

Just like doctors, this would open up to geting your behind covered by an insurance policy. Good for insurance companies I suppose.

I work for the company, the company owns the code, the code isn't mine. So in this sense why should I be held liable for something that isn't even mine?

What happens when mutlitple people work on something? Say I write something, Brandon updates it, I update it again. Who's responsible?

Posted by SammyD at 10:06 AM | Comments (0)



October 4, 2005

I have submitted the following text to Allstate:

Your password system on the customer care section is the most obnoxious password system I have ever used.

1. The Password must be 6-8 charecters in length (and have letters and numbers).

While the letters and numbers thing is a great thing to have, limited the password to be JUST 6-8 charecters is very annoying. Generally my passwords range from 6-10 charecters in length, and when I try to reset my password and it stops my typing at 8 charecters, it's frustrating.

2. Password changes take 10 minutes.

This is down right annoying.

When I change my password on almost any website I go to (including sites that handle my banking transactions) the password change is instantaneous. I logout, I login with my new password, and BAM! I'm in.

3. The wrong username/password message: The User ID or password you've entered is incorrect. Please either re-enter your User ID and password or go to Forgot Your User ID or Password to retrieve your log on information.

While you can retreive your username, you cannot retrieve your password. You can only reset your password, which means that you then have to wait for 10 minutes (see number 2) for this to take effect.

Other then that, I've been happy with my insurance services from Allstate and the Bebout Agency.

Posted by SammyD at 11:54 PM | Comments (0)



September 20, 2005

So I get home from work today and see two missed calls. One of them says "Royal Presti" so I'm a bit curious as to who that is, considering my name is on the do not call list.

So they called back this evening, and it turns out to be Royal Prestige, which is a company that sells things through local sellers. Since a friend of mine does this for Pure Romance, I think this is a fine way to sell things. So they put forth the offer of a Trip, a free engagement photo session (at a local photographer whose name I recognized), and gift certificates for their own products.

So I'm naturally skeptical, but since Shannon put me on the phone, and when it comes down to it I say sure, we'll go.

As soon as I hang up, I pull up my good ole pal Google, and in short order the magic of the internet tells me, beyond my normal skeptical nature, that not only do they prey on engaged (mostly younger) couples, but they aren't really responsive to complaints either. So being that I felt that it seems a bit scammish, we're not going...and we're not calling them back to tell 'em so either.

Also, Shannon got a call from a Mary Kay rep, and even though Mary Kay is a reputable company, the "you win something" is kinda scammish to try to make a new customer.

Oh well...

Posted by SammyD at 7:58 PM | Comments (0)



September 5, 2005

What is it about the work that hired photographers do that makes them think they can charge for their work over and over and over?

I sent out a bunch of emails yesterday to photography places to ask for prices and give them our (mostly my) requirements for wedding pictures. Here is the list:

1. Wedding Date: Saturday, September 23, 2006
2. General Time: Around Noon to 4 or 5 (4 or 5 hours of service).
3. Most photographs will be live shots (about an hour will be posed).
4. The negatives/digital images, we must have copies of.
5. Use of our photographs for your promotional purposes must be with our permission.

First two are just informational.

The third one is more about wanting to present reality, as opposed to a posed reality. Not that a posed reality can't look nice, but usually it looks...well...posed. The pictures that have the biggest effect on me are usually the ones that are live, action shots. I know that when we talked to the owners of Candle Lit Way they pretty much wanted to get the photographer out of the way so we can go on, but I don't really agree. I want the live shots, the unexpected faces, the honest tears of joy, the excitment. Not just, "smile for the picture".

The fifth, this is about a couple of things. Protecting our image (even if they are technically good photos, we may not like them, or want them published) and the fact that I believe that we, since we are paying for, own the work, so it would need to be used with our permission

The fourth...Ahh the big scam from photographers.

When I develop a website or an application for a website, they pay me for my time, efforts and intelligence. Every time someone hits thier website, I don't expect a small surchage for past design. When I do my work at work, IHS owns what I write. All of what I write, and I, if I left or got fired from that job the next day, wouldn't own any of it. Is it my creation, absolutly, but it's no longer mine.

So what about taking photographs for pay, makes it worth duplicating the cost to produce the picture over and over? Are the pictures artistic or art? I would certainly hope so. But when I buy photographs as art, I pay for the picture (which includes the time and effort and artistic quality. I don't have to pay for the photographer's time before hand.

I think that if a photographer wants me to pay for each image and not give me the negatives, then they shouldn't charge me up front. We should be able to go through the images they have, pick what we want and pay for those, and if they don't have many images they want, well, then they get the short end of the stick.

Or, if they want to be paid upfront for their efforts in photography and image correction skills, then they shouldn't charge a per picture end price, if we want to develop with them, then we can, but we also have the option to go somewhere else.

So far, the photographers I have liked are not working yet (they have a thing on their wabsite that tells you not to contact them until October), or charge way to damn much, or don't allow us to own the negatives/digital images. So far there is one relatively promising one, but their image selection on their website is kinda...well...not the best. The images they have there are good, there's just not a whole lot of 'em.

Posted by SammyD at 8:52 AM | Comments (0)



July 22, 2005

complaint 1

I will continue to complain.

On the corner of 44th and Franklin, near my house, quite a few times over the last couple of weeks, people treat the stop light there more as a stop sign, then a light.

When I'm walking in the morning, more then once while I've been crossing the street (with the light) and people barely stop for me.

When I'm driving, lots of cars just wait for the others to pass before crossing the intersection. Not turning right, crossing the intersection.

It's obnoxious is what it is.

complaint 2

On the other side of the coin, my mask is a big annoyance. It seems that when I just get over one irratation on my nose, another one comes and replaces it just as it heals.

I used to sleep all the time on my side, but with the mask it's kinda impossible. Last night I curled up a bit, next to Shannon, and the next thing I know she's waking me up because the mask is squeeking cause air is escaping and basically humming against my face.

And while we're on the mask, because of it it makes it hard to cuddle up next to Shannon. She can fall asleep, but as soon as I do, I wake her up again, with my obnoxious snoring.

complaint 3

One of the two drugs I'm on for high blood pressure, apprently turns my bladder into that of a little girl. I have to go all the damn time. One of these days I will keep track of how often I go, just for curiositys sake.

And...I can't understand why I have the toughest time that when the time hits 10:AM I take my pills, 10:AM every damn day. Today I didn't remember until 12:30....usually I'm good on weekdays cause I have my calendar remind me to take 'em, but I was away from my desk today. Maybe I need a watch to beep at 10:AM every day.

complaint 4

Is there a way for the cats to say, "I don't like the way you are petting me", without them biting me? This morning, I had extra time, so I was watching a little TV before work, and gracie was next to me and I was petting her. So I go to reach to her rear paws to check her claws, to see if it's time to trim them, and apprently she doesn't like that, so she nips at me. I tell her no, she runs away.

I think that's enough for now.

Posted by SammyD at 5:44 PM | Comments (0)



July 15, 2005

What about being a bitch, makes a person think that they'll get better service? If I'm trying to help you and you can't be bothered to help me help you, then why should I help you?

I would vent, but the way I interpret my privacy clause prevents me from doing so.

Posted by SammyD at 10:15 AM | Comments (0)



January 27, 2005

So after a quick sweeping and moping and vacuuming of parts of the house, I headed over to Joshy's and we played some Diablo II. But instead of continuing on as we have been, we hung around ACT II on Hell mode and play through various parts, to level us up a bit for prep for act III (so we don't die a bunch like we did the last time we tried Act III). So at midnight, I called it a night and headed home.

Driving down Franklin, I see a bit of trash on the road, and I think no big deal, blew out of someone's garbage can. Then a bit further down the street, it looks like someone had some sort of fast food, and just decided to dump all of their trash (of which it was quite a bit), on the street. Just a big pile of it. There are times when I come home during the summer (or at least when I can see things in my yard other then snow) where I get a bit of trash here and there, and either the mower gets it (small stuff) or I'll pick it up and toss it in the trash. But a big pile in the middle of the road? Come on. Like any of your friends would be offended if you took your trash out of your car and put it in their bin? It was just really disturbing that people try to keep this neighborhood looking nice, and some jackhole can just drive by and dump trash out their window.

Posted by SammyD at 12:45 AM | Comments (0)



January 13, 2005

So this year one of my goals is to be more honest with myself and others. And part of this will include me being more honest in my journal. Sometimes I censor myself on myself on my website, cause I know that my family reads this site.

Now I just want to say that I am not challenging anyone's beliefs or choices, and do agree with many of them. But as life turns out, it's not what has been right for me and my life at this time, who knows what will come later, though.

I do do things that would not be appropriate for for my younger brothers to do, unless at the age that it is legal for them and they make the choice to do so.

Some of the choices I've made in the past haven't been the wisest, some haven't even been legal, but I don't regret most of them.

So as a point of interest, no more editing to keep it PG or PG-13.

Something that was pointed out to me is that this is my journal and it's a record of the things I do and the feelings and thoughts that I have, and it should be an honest one.

Not that it will change most journal entries that much, but others, like new years, for example, would've included a bit more, even if it's hinted at (and the pictures kinda show).

So that's out there now, I guess.

Posted by SammyD at 8:07 PM | Comments (0)



December 12, 2004

So I was reading my comics this morning, and Stone Soup really stood out at me.

Shop shop shop, "Show them how much you live them" by buying this really expensive thing.

You know what my favorite presents have been (not necessarily christmas)? The jeans quilt my mom made for me, this blanket knitted for me by a sunday school teacher. Gifts from friends where it's like I was going along, saw this, and thought of you (at some random time).

I like looking at the lights, and there's a big display at this church up the street. But sometimes people just really confuse the issues. There's this display in front of a house just a few blocks up. It has a baby Jesus in the manger, with Santa and reindeer looking over they baby. The Abominable snow man is holding up the star. It's just so...confused.

Posted by SammyD at 12:55 PM | Comments (0)



December 6, 2004

Respect can be defined as: To feel or show deferential regard for; esteem. Accept can be defined as: To endure resignedly or patiently.

On every person, there are parts of them that you respect, parts that you accept and sometimes there are parts that you may not particularly like. These all add up to the person. Sometimes you like that person and sometimes you don't, and you usually respect the people that you like, but there are things about all people that you just grow to accept.

There are things about all the people that I know, that I just accept about them. I love the people as they are, but that doesn't meant that I have to respect all of the choices that they make in their lives. I sure will accept them...at least most of them. Sometimes I also try to give them alternate choices, in hopes that maybe, just maybe, they'll try something else and see if different results come about.

Sometimes I like to talk about things, and sometimes I don't realize that some people can't really take a dispassionate view about some topics. Some topics can be far to close to the heart to talk about reasonably. I know that not everyone has the same view of the world that I do, and I don't expect them to.

Posted by SammyD at 7:43 PM | Comments (0)



December 4, 2004

So we played Diablo two all night...and I didn't stick to my guns and call it a night by 3:AM like I had planned. But I did by six.

It's always nice to have things to do on the weekend, but I gotta remember that if I make multiple commitments (something on friday/saturday night/sunday day) then I should make sure that I'm my chipper self for all the activities....

I'm going to Fire in the Sky tonight and I've heard that it is cool...and I do love fireworks. So this should be fun...even if it is cold out...although today's high is supposed to be in the lower 50s.

Posted by SammyD at 12:36 PM | Comments (0)



November 23, 2004

When someone makes a statement that is a generalization, it can often lead to a misunderstanding of the topic at hand. Certainly one should qualify a statement by a modifier, like:

In my experience, most (generalization subject/object) (generalization premise).

Instead of something like:

(generalization subject/object) (generalization premise).

But why should one do this?

Lets take for example, cars. Some people I know are big fans of Lincoln cars. And they really love the Lincoln that they own, and the do believe that it is certainly one of the best car companies. However, this does not mean that everything that Lincoln has made is the best car in the category, even by his opinion. He will admit that there are series of cars that he likes from the same manufacturer that do not run in line with his statement about Lincoln cars. When he makes a statement like:

Lincoln cars are the best.

Then it could come to comparing one of the lesser Lincoln’s with a car of better standing, and on that point, it would not appear that Lincoln’s would be able to hold their title as being the best. If one would modify the statement with a experience phrase, like:

In my experience, Lincoln Cars are the best.

Then one has to take into account the experience of the person making the statement in relation to the object at hand. If someone were to add a further modifier of “most” to the statement, like:

In my experience, most Lincoln Cars are the best.

Then that further protects the statement from easily being challenged, because now you are able to exclude the negative examples that challenge the car.

Often generalizations are used to mark an opinion, but if a person were to take the same kind of generalization and include someone of a different race, creed, or nationality or sex, then it simply sounds like the person has a bias against that particular group. I would cite examples, but I’m afraid that it would detract from the point. If you have bias against a group, then people will doubt what you say even more, or even that your experience is fully valid, because it is already poisoned by your bias that shows through in your statements.

If one would want to prevent someone from questioning their experiences, then they should go from the general to the specific. Take for example the following statement:

Honda Accords kick ass.

Vs

The Honda Accord that I owned was good for the time that I had it and gave me little problems for the age that it was.

Certainly the first statement could be true, but obviously the second statement has the distinct difference of show that the person put some thought into what they were trying state, while leaving items that are outside their (in this case my) realm of experience.

I don’t think this means that you can never make a generalization, but I think what it shows that generalizations often lead to misunderstanding and confusion about what you are saying, and if you want to avoid such a thing, then you probably want to avoid using wide sweeping generalizations.

Posted by SammyD at 12:50 AM | Comments (0)



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