|
| There
are only 2 kinds of soldiers in the US. Those who have already died protecting freedom and
those who haven't yet.
Just reading some stuff today on the Tomb of the
Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. Being that it is Memorial Day,
I thought I would share it. I visited the tomb when i was in 8th grade on our Washington
DC trip to witness the changing of the guard and conduct a wreath laying
ceremony. It is one of the few experiences I can specifically remember from that
trip because it was considered such an honored place.
The Tomb is guarded by a society of honor guards. Guards take 21 steps across
the Tomb then turns and faces the tomb for 21 seconds. The number 21 of course
signifies a 21 gun salute to honor the dead. After that he turns and walks back
21 steps turns and faces for another 21 seconds and repeats until relieved
always keeping his weapon shouldered on the opposite shoulder to the Tomb. The
Tomb is guarded 24/7 all year long regardless of inclement weather. The
dedication held by the honor guard was shown during a hurricane in 2003.
http://www.snopes.com/military/isabel.htm
Hopefully at least today we can remember the soldiers who have given their
lives to ensure the freedoms that allow us to worship God without persecution. | | |
|
There
are 2 kinds of buses in the world; those that take you places and those that
bring you back.
BUS-ted
So
now my 25 mile commute to the hospital job has turned into a 6 mile commute to
UCI. However I’ve found a way to make
my shorter commute to UCI take a longer time. That’s right, I’m riding the bus.
Not the UCI shuttle or anything but the actual OCTA bus from Alton down Culver,
then onto Campus right up to Lee’s Sandwiches. In my car it takes about 6
minutes one way. Yet somehow now that I’m taking the bus I’m leaving at 710am
and getting to work at 745am. I’d break it down but you’re probably not
interested in counting the minutes with me that I’m waiting at the bus stop. Is
this really an improvement over the hospital commute? Hmmm... Leave at 715am and get to
work at 750am? Well at least the OCTA is free for UCI students and staff and I
hopefully only have to fill up my car like once every 2 weeks.
Anyways,
for those of you who have never ridden the bus let me give you some pointers. I
feel I’m at a suitable bus rider level to give you all advice.
- Don’t panic! That’s
right, the same words on the cover of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the
Galaxy. I’m sure that interplanetary hitchhikers would not frown upon
taking the bus once in a while as long as it was affordable. Well I’ve
been in your place before Mr. Or Ms. “First Time Bus Rider” and let me
tell you, “No one even cares that you’re riding the bus with them.” Not
the guy reading his newspaper, not the girl listening to her ipod, and
especially not the bus driver. Consider it an honor if anyone initiates a
2-word conversation with you where the first word is the same as the
second… “Hi.”
- Ante up! If you’re
going to ride the bus make sure you have the money to pay for said bus
ride. I don’t understand the people who come onto the bus without change
for the fare. You know how much it’s going to be. At least you should
unless you want to look stupid asking people for change for your Andrew
Jackson. Go buy an egg mcmuffin or
something and get change cause the bus drivers don’t carry any.
- Biker courtesy. If you
are going to attempt to ride with a bicycle. Know the steps to placing it
on the rack. Pull up the handle, lower the rack, place the bike and secure
with the adjustable bar. Nothing makes the bus ride longer more needlessly
than improper bike storage procedures. Don’t leave your helmet on the bike
either; it’s going to fall off.
- Go the distance… rather
go the correct distance. Know where you’re going to get off. You probably
don’t want to wait for the last moment to signal the driver by pulling the
cord, but you also don’t want to be the person pulling the cord the second
the bus leaves the previous stop. Nothing
(with the exception of the next point) looks more stupid than
pulling the cord too early and making the bus driver stop needlessly.
Everyone’s waiting for someone to get off and no one moves, someone’s going
to remember you signaled the stop. http://www.google.com/transit
- Know how to open the
back doors. When you exit the bus, more than likely you’ll be exiting
through the back doors so you don’t get in the way of people getting on
the bus. However, I’ve seen this present it’s own challenge on multiple
occasions. Know this, the bus driver does not open these doors for you.
The doors are opened by pressing on the long yellow plastic strips. Like I
said you kind of look lost if you’re standing in front of the door waiting
for it to open by itself. Usually someone else will reach over and open it
for you. Hopefully that’s the first and last time you’ll ever make that
mistake.
Go ahead and ride the bus but no one wants to
look like a bus rookie so follow my advice. Also to my knowledge there is no
singing of the “hailing” of any bus drivers or of which directions the wheels
on the bus seem to be going. | | |
| There are 2 kinds of complaints in a store; those that are verbalized and those that are written… both are ignored.
Now I’m not one to complain about customer services but… wait a minute, oh yeah I am. However my anger with sub-competent services is not unjust. Take yesterday for example:
There
I am patiently waiting in a line at Costco. I mean who doesn’t like
waiting in line at Costco? You could be in a line of two people but if
they’re stacking up their 400 rolls of toilet paper or 50 cases of soda
on those flat bed carts you’ll be in line for a while. How can you not
expect people to fill up their carts when you’re selling 10 gallons of
cooking oil of like 75 cents? Point is, like Snoop Dogg says, “It’s not
the size of the line of carts, it’s the size the carts in the line”,
err something like that. So anyways, the “bagger” (or I guess at Costco
it’s the “boxer”) comes up towards the end of the line with a “This
line closed” sign and begins to place it on the cart two customers in
front of me. I’m kind of shocked by this. He looks back and sees the
rest of us in back and I guess feels sorry for the lady in front of me
cause she had a crazy full cart to which she says something like,
“Yeah, I think I’ve been waiting here long enough.” Still kind of
shocked I’m looking at him going, “Ooookay what am I supposed to do?”
He
turns around and walks away not really paying attention to my comment.
I had never seen this before, a blatant disregard for customer service.
I looked down at my cart and now wondered how I was going to pay for my
two items. Coming out of shellshock it hits me. TWO ITEMS and the line
closes? You couldn’t even stay open for the 30 seconds longer it takes
to ring up my purchase? I’ll admit sometimes I’m wrong, but in this
case I was wronged. By the time I realize this I open my eyes and I’m
in another line waiting to pay and when I’m done guess who’s putting my
purchase into the cart. Yes the same bagger/boxer from before
unapologetic and acting like nothing happened.
Searching for
the words to express my anger to him but at the same time suppressing
the urge to turn this into an R-rated conversation I finally get out,
“Dude! What the heck? Why did you close that other line right in front
of me?” He looked at me with an “I don’t know” type of face and said,
“I was told to.” Again I’ve never been shocked this many times at a
Costco. Okay maybe only one other time
(shoot, i was looking for an entry to link here and then realized I
never wrote about the time i had to wait two hours for a Costco pizza).
So I made my case known to the supervisor and he assured me that they
always tell the boxers to put the sign on the last cart in line and
agreed it was unacceptable. But a lot of good that does me now eh? So I
left Costco, only to come back in because I was unsatisfied that my
concern was completely valued. I even bought a piece of pizza to see if
food and time would help me realize that my complaints would probably
fall on deaf ears anyways. However it didn’t so I proceeded to write
out a comment card explaining the situation. Not known for my brevity,
I did manage to write out a concise message that spanned the 8 lines
provided on the front of the card as well as the entire backside.
Satisfied that no blood was spilled in this incident I dropped the card
into the suggestion box and left for home.
| | |
| There is only 1 kind of item at a garage sale, one man’s trash and one man’s treasure.
It’s
official. It’s a disease…Automobilius Domitorium Venderitis (ADV)… and
I’ve contracted it. That’s right it’s a sickness… I go to garage sales.
First step to curing yourself is admitting you have a problem. Now
let’s take the second step and try to understand it.
I’ve been
suffering from a mild form of ADV for a couple of weeks now. I can’t
help it. When the Pennysaver comes by Wednesdays I’m looking through
the first few pages seeing if there are any local garage sales. Mapping
them out on Google maps comes next. Then come Saturday, I’m up at 6am
getting ready for the ones that start at 7am. You can spot the carriers
of ADV fairly easily. Just look for their general feigned disdain for
the OPP (that’s right, other people’s property) and their refusal or
reluctance to buy things at the manufacture’s suggested retail price
(or MSRP). People who suffer from this disease or have a genetic
predisposition to can be anyone around you. They can be friends,
neighbors, relatives and all colors, creeds and political affiliations.
Going to garage sales can be addictive. You go to one and maybe
you don’t find anything and then you want to make sure you don’t miss
out at the next one. Or else you go to one and find something and you
want to go to the next one to feel that same sense of satisfaction.
People ask me if I’m looking for something specific. I say, “Not
really, just looking for treasure.” Trying to find something that I
value more than the person trying to sell it.
I first noticed
my problem today at the garage sales. Sure I had seen others who were
suffering from the same disease, some people might even call them
“garage sale pros” in an attempt to glorify this strange and possibly
destructive behavior. Anyways I began to notice that I was seeing the
same pros at the garage sales that I was going to. One garage sale
today had a late opening time, 8am. I was able to drive my car back to
my place and walk over to this one with plenty of time to spare. So I
decided to walk around the block a few times. As I passed by the garage
sale house again I noticed that there were a couple of the same cars
from the two 7am garage sales that I had been to. After another turn
around the block (a little closer to 8am this time) I recognized no
less than 8 people that I had already seen that morning. These were the
pros! This must’ve been on the hit list for the Irvine circuit.
Unfortunately this was not the most shocking moment of that 2-minute
interval of walking. There were 20 people standing outside that house’s
fence waiting till the stroke of 8am to get into the sale. Once the
owner opened up the gate it was like rushing the beach at Normandy as
people descended upon the sale like a horde of locust. Long story
short, I didn’t end up buying anything there.
Please do what you
can to help ADV carriers. If you or a loved one is suffering please
seek professional or unprofessional help. If the behavior is caught
early it can be corrected. Otherwise this disease can mutate into
another disease called Rubbishium Containius Jumpiclitis more commonly
known as “Dumpster Diving.”
| | |
| There are only two kinds of people at Sportmart, those who are wrong and those who agree with the customer.
Memo
to retailers, don’t try and jack me. It only makes me want to write
xanga’s about you and believe me I never write these to make myself
look bad. Well to be fair let me start out with a story of good
customer service at Sportmart.
So last weekend High Life calls
me up and says that the “pop-up” type canopies are on sale at Sportmart
for around $70. Now being a savvy consumer I know that these units
usually run around $100 so at around 30% off it’s not a bad deal. Why
would I want one of these though? I have no idea. Anyways the urge to
save the cash equivalent of 144 soda cans and buy something on sale
beat out my logic of practicality. I rationalized that one day I would
want to sit in the shade. Maybe in the rainforest once it’s been
totally clearcut. On that same day I bet people actually start going to
the Rainforest Café. Where is this going now? Ah yes, so I went to
Sportmart (henceforth known as SMT cause I don’t want to keep typing
it) and took a look at the canopies. The SMT dude in the canopy area
was helping out some lady and she wanted the EZ Up brand named canopy
that was 40% off $130 (or $78 for those who are calculator challenged).
SMT dude said the better buy was the QuickShade brand one that was 33%
off a C-note ($66, are you remembering this? There’s a quiz later). So
after I talked to SMT dude and asked him about the “better deal” he was
nice enough to show me it and told me it actually provided more shade
(true?). So I went up to the register with one. Yet when it rang up the
price was $100. Apparently I was a day late for the sale. SMT dude
realized his mistake and revealed his true identity as SMT manager and
adjusted the price for me. So I got the sale price anyway. Who’s a
winner?
Now for the second story… As I was perusing the ads this
last Friday I noticed that the QuickShade canopies were all 50% off
now. Naturally I checked to see if SMT had a price guarantee. It’s a
pretty strict because you have to be within 6 days of the original
purchase but since I had bought it late I figured I qualified. So I
went to SMT that day just to be sure. After waiting in line with my
receipt I showed it to the SMT cashier and asked for the difference
refunded. She seemed to be okay with it so she called over the manager.
This is where it begins to go bad. The SMT manager said that the price
of the item on sale was $100. I’m like of course it is but it’s 50% off
of that which equals $50 and I paid $70 last week. $70 is greater than
$50 so I want the difference refunded. She told me that the original
price of the canopy was $200 and that $100 is half of that. I couldn’t
believe it, $200? How are they not competitively priced?
So I
saw a couple who had one of those canopies in their cart and I went up
to them and told them that I had just been informed that the price of
the canopy was actually $99. They were confused because like me they
thought it was only half of that. So I think the SMT manager saw me and
I don’t think she appreciated me talking to them. So she walked up and
said, “Do you want to see the ad?” So of course I agree and she
proceeds to show me a canopy in the ad that is $99 at 50% off. Still
determined to find the truth the couple eventually went up to the
register to price check their item. Wouldn’t you know it? $50. So I
went in line again to get my refund. Now some people might ask why
didn’t I just do that in the first place? The reason is that the SMT
manager was so sure that she was right that she was actually making me
feel stupid for not knowing what products were advertised.
Back
in line again I had to wait for the manger to come back. I waited for a
good 7 minutes for a SMT manager to show up and really contemplated
filling out a “response” card from a company that said their “goal is
100% customer satisfaction.” Anyways another SMT manager came up and
confirmed the price (duh! on the register). Then she asked me to get
into line and the SMT cashier would complete the transaction for me. by
this time she had a line again. Ok so I didn’t get back at the end of
line but when she finally got to me she had to call the manager again
because she didn’t know how to do a price adjustment. After another 2
minutes of waiting the 1st SMT manager came back and explained the
process. I told her I thought she was looking at a different item in
the ad and it was not the one that I had bought. She never really said
sorry, not at all. Anyways I had gotten what I originally sought out to
get. The whole ordeal took about half an hour longer than the 2 minutes
it should have taken.
Maybe if I had sent in that complaint that
SMT manager would’ve lost her job. Of course I always know a certain
McDonald’s on Alton and Jeffrey she could work at. FYI the other
abbreviations for SportMart I had was S-Mart but I didn’t think it was
fitting.
| | |
|
