Tag Archives: everyone is stupid

These two games wore me out. I am finished.

Argentina v. Iran

I don’t think one single game has gone the way I expected. I thought was going to be an easy rout for Argentina with me turning off the TV after the half so as not to have to watch the horror. I was very wrong. Iran was amazing. I found myself conflicted. Who doesn’t like to see an underdog beat one of the favorites? Argentina found a heartbreaker in stoppage time and I felt bad for Iran. But if you’re going to get your heart broken, at least it was at the feet of Messi.

Germany v. Ghana

What a game. Great playing on both sides. And completely exhausting. I thought it was kind of interesting that the commentators seemed to be writing Germany off when USA and Portugal haven’t even played yet. Let’s not jinx it by assuming the outcome.

So, the good news is that the technical problem I was whining about the other day is actually an update to Photoshop.

Just kidding. That’s not good news at all. It took me what, 18 months to finish a 15 hour class on the last version I had? It asked me if I wanted to import my settings. Yes, I clicked. My settings were not imported. Bob asked if I had a back-up. Of course I have a back-up but I don’t need a half-day project because 1 computer program updated.

I’m going to putter out in the yard for a bit. I need the fresh air and sunshine and the garden needs any attention I am willing to give it. I need to wait until my bread is finished. I haven’t baked in a couple of weeks and have been missing decent bread. EVERYTHING that comes from the grocery store, no matter what it’s called or what shape it is, is soft, squishy crap. I would rather not eat bread than eat soft, squishy bread.

Yesterday when I sat down to post, all my stories vanished from my mind. It wasn’t until I started doing something else that I remembered some of them.

All my winter long underwear is disintegrating, or worse. I have this habit of thinking I will buy new seasonal wear and then putting it off for so long that I decide to get through the season with what I have and buy new the following season. But I don’t get rid of the ratty stuff. I hang onto it in case I need it before I have time to get the new stuff. And then the cycle continues.

I, cleverly I thought, went and found some long underwear on clearance to buy now. Then I could throw away the ratty stuff and be treated with pretty new stuff next winter when my butt gets cold.

I bought it on March 27th and according to my tracking number it arrived in Portland on April 3. Since then it’s been in transit. At the beginning of last week I phoned to find out what was happening and of course the phone system of Giant Global Delivery Service is automated and after making me state my 22 digit tracking number into the phone, it told me my package was in transit. Gee, thanks for the helpful update!

Then I went to email help. After 24 hours I received message, apologizing for any inconvenience I might be suffering while being denied access to my long underwear for next winter, and asking for the delivery address.

Shouldn’t this information be attached to the tracking number?

I complied and 24 hours later I received message, apologizing (… etc) and asking for my phone number and assuring me that they would contact me to let me know what’s going on.

Still haven’t heard. Already this clearance underwear isn’t worth it *plus* they couldn’t ship the order complete so who knows what else I have to look forward to.

About every 2-3 weeks were getting a special, exclusive, JUST-FOR-YOU offer for a business loan for the tenant who was in our space before us. I’m talking about the office. He moved out in September of 2008. I can understand maybe a year later, but 5+ years? Update your mailing list.

Last week, in a fit of irritation, I stuck the offer into the pre-paid envelope and wrote on it, “This person hasn’t been at this location since 2008.”

This week we got another letter for previous tenant who is not at this location. The image above is from that letter. It was a normal white paper letter. I added the rainbow and the texture, because I can.

I have a piece of exercise equipment that failed in exactly the way they have a lifetime guarantee that it won’t fail.

This exercise equipment has different pieces and this particular piece I could easily live without but you know, principle of the thing. I went online to see how this lifetime guarantee thing works.

They have one of those webpages that you scroll down forever and the text alternates black, red and blue and in different sizes. Lots of act now for a special offer and when you click away a window pops up asking: Are you sure you want to leave this page? I swear there’s a marketing template of this somewhere because I’ve seen the same style on a huge variety of products. The lifetime guarantee is cited numerous times.

I found a link that said it would tell me more about the lifetime guarantee and I clicked away and there it was all spelled out how the lifetime guarantee works. I didn’t even have to send my piece back, I just had to pay for shipping and they’d replace it for me. For more information on how this works, click here.

And that link took me back to the page with the first link. And I clicked until I did the circle again before I said, Wait a minute.

So there very clearly is a lifetime guarantee but how make it work for you is going to take some digging.

And I could dig. There is a phone number but how much is my time and energy worth?

I usually avoid writing too much about work but this isn’t about my employer so I think it will be okay.

Not long ago a copier salesguy came by the office to tell us about his company. In my career I have told approximately 20,000 of these guys to take a hike but on this day, I was interested.

I welcomed him in, told him we would be looking at copiers soon. I showed him the copier we had and what the terms were and explained what we were looking for.

Him: Can you give me a copy of your copier lease?

No, I said.

He returned another day with his manager and they continued their spiel and brought some pictures of copiers and told us about some other services that we’d expressed an interest in.

Them: Can we get a copy of your copier lease?

No, we said.

Later I asked for a good faith estimate that we could use for our budget to take to our boss. I gave him at least 3 weeks. Two days before the I needed the numbers I followed up and asked if he could get me an estimate. Didn’t hear from him.

Over a week later I got an email.

Him: Can I get a copy of your copier lease so I can get you that estimate?

No, I said, and it’s too late anyway.

Later I told him we were seeking proposals and I sent him a sheet explaining what we were looking for and reminded him what we already had and what we were paying.

He sent me back an email that said what we were looking for didn’t need a proposal and they would lease us a machine and charge us based on what we used.

For reasons not related to this story, we’ve had to delay getting the new copier.

I just about dropped my teeth when a few weeks ago a different salesguy from the same company came in here to ask me if I was interested in talking about copiers.

I told him the entire backstory and he made an appointment to bring his manager in.

I had to cancel it because we had something going on here and when I called he informed me that *he* had to cancel and was intending to tell me this, “soon.” He would call back to reschedule.

And I’ve never heard from him.

Clearly, we decided not to do business with these people a long time ago. Colleague has asked me to stop talking to them.

But I’m dying to see how far this thing will go. How many times we can ask and still not have one useful piece of data about what their company can do for us?

[Note: I updated the post to clarify that they wanted to see our copier lease.]

For reasons not completely clear to me, the wall between my office and the office next door is paper thin. The wall between my office and co-worker’s office is more substantial.

Way back when we moved in here I commented on it because I can hear everything that goes on over there. I’ve never had to work in a cubicle. Perhaps it is analogous.

Fortunately, whoever was using that space was hardly ever there and it wasn’t a problem.

Earlier this year, those people moved out and the business adjacent on the other side expanded into the space.

I might have whined about it during the construction process. It was loud and dusty and inconvenient and no one even took 3 seconds to come over here to talk to us about it. At one point it was so loud that I couldn’t hear people on the telephone and when I complained I was assured that they were doing something something so that it when it was finished it would be more insulated.

As it turns out, this is not true.

So far, the office isn’t in full time use but at least once a week their receptionist goes in there to make phone calls. Her voice is loud and grating and she talks a lot. Oh my. I know everything about everything in her personal and professional life. She is guilty of massive overuse of the word, literally. Sometimes after she’d been in there awhile I have to leave my office because the sound of her talking makes me want to stick forks in my ears.

It occurred to me that I could politely mention how thin the walls are except it’s financial firm and most of them are total weenies and when I complained during construction everyone gave me stink eye and make it clear they didn’t care. If it gets worse I’ll move my computer to the reception desk.

Meanwhile, the photo. I have been an office worker since time immemorial and we’ve always had these floor mats. The mats come with a lifetime guarantee and I am here to tell you that they last about 5 years, max. The lifetime guarantee is genius because it comes in the form of a sticker on the floor mat and it’s impossible to peel off without destroying. “Just present this sticker and your original purchase receipt for a full refund.” HA! Every time we buy a new mat I try to figure out how to get our refund. It’s not even the money, it’s the challenge. This last time I managed to peel off the sticker in about 3 big pieces. Then I couldn’t find the receipt. I have every office supply purchase receipt in the history of this office, except that one.

Next time.

OOPS. Looks like I never clicked publish yesterday.

It’s only Day 7 and I’m already losing steam for NaBlo. Soon you’ll find posts about the snoring man on the bus and how I organize my socks.

So you know how everyone has their Internet pet peeves? For example, incorrect use of the word: literally.

I’m sure it will come to no surprise to my loyal readers that I have a million pet peeves. My pet peeves have pet peeves.

And I always resist the urge to write about them because pet peeves are sort of like dreams, it’s much more interesting to talk about your own than hear someone else’s.

Unless that person shares the pet peeve. Then it’s love.

I started to keep them on a piece of paper next to my desk so I wouldn’t be tempted to write about them. Then the paper became too full so now I have a spreadsheet. It has two columns. The column for lazy writing clichés has 35 items and the column for hated and overused expressions has 31 items.

Sometimes I have to sit on my hands to keep from writing about “just this one this one time because it is so irritating and I hate it so much.”

Another reason I can never write about them is that almost every person I know including myself has used at least one of them before and I don’t want anyone to think I’m picking on them.