February 13, 2007

FedEx is eVile

I placed an order with an art store I love last week. The only shipping options, sadly, was with FedEx - The World on Time is their tag line.

HA!

The package was due to be delivered Saturday, and I happily awaited my package. I hit reload on the tracking page every few hours ... and as the day wore on and I was getting more frustrated by wanting to work on the projects which required that package ... every half hour or so. Finally, at 7:30 p.m., I see this:

7:29 p.m. Delivery exception Customer not available or business closed

WTH????? Here I am, sitting here, waiting. Nothing. "Customer not available" my ass!

Furious, I immediately find the Contact page for DeadEx and send them an email complaint. They ask for more information, which I give. The new estimated date of delivery is not Monday, February 12, but Tuesday, February 13. Crap crap crap.

Do I hear back from the local DeadEx hub? Of course not. Apparently they didn't work Monday for President's Day. So today, again, I eagerly hit reload. "On the truck for delivery." Great. WOOHOO ... I'm gonna get my art supplies so I can work on some model sheets.

I check at 5:00 ... sure enough:

4:55 p.m. Delivery exception Local weather delay, delivery attempted

WTH???? Yes, we have a lot of snow. But UPS was able to deliver. I was able to drive my little bitty, lightweight, low-to-the-ground foreign jobbie without any problems. I passed PLENTY of FedEx trucks around town.

I am so furious I could scream. That's twice now that they've "attempted delivery" when they haven't even been near my house. And, of course, their 800 number is busy today ... so there's just no other recourse than another email. Which they won't care about.

I HATE FEDEX

Dammit.

How much you wanna bet they don't deliver tomorrow either?
/me growlz inconsolably

Technorati:
Federal Express, FedEx, delivery service, DeadEx, UPS, United Parcel Service, DHL

Posted by Red Monkey at 4:13 PM | Comments (3) | Never Underestimate the Power of Human Stupidity | Stumble

February 11, 2007

The World on Time

I really hate FedEx ... well, I should be more specific. I truly hate the FedEx hub here in town. I've had loads of problems with them not leaving packages which did not require a signature ... and then telling me to pick it up at the hub, only for me to show up there (after calling as you're supposed to do) and then find out that the item was still on the truck, out for delivery. My favourite was being told that I should come pick up the package at their office after 6:45 p.m. ... and that they closed at 7 p.m. ... and if the truck wasn't there and didn't have it in the front office by then, I'd have to wait until Monday.

But this one really takes the cake.

I check my tracking info ... package on time to be delivered Saturday. I hit reload all day long ... "on the truck for delivery." Reload. "out for delivery" 6 p.m. rolls around ... "out for delivery" ... 6:30, same thing. 7:00. 7:30 p.m. ... "delivery exception" ... "Customer not available or business closed."

WTF?????

I'm sitting here at home all damn day Saturday, waiting for that package so I could get some work done. And now, "The World On Time" seems a great big joke to me. The fact that the driver ... or whomever ... LIED and said that I was "not available" really ticks me off.

So, I use the site to email them and let them know ... I was kinda hoping they'd make someone bring the damn package over ... but of course, they simply said:

We received your inquiry. We regret any inconvenience caused by this situation.

To help us follow up on this situation, please e-mail the following information to us: - The complete names and addresses of the shipper and recipient, for verification - Telephone/contact number

Once we receive these shipment details, we will send a message to the terminal and advise them of your concerns.

Thank you for your patience in this matter, and for shipping with FedEx.

Ummm, well, okay. At least they're gonna talk to the locals. Then I get this:

We sent a message to the delivery terminal and advised them of your concerns. We referenced your phone number and requested that the terminal give you a call back in case they need more information to complete the delivery of this package.

And then? Nothing.

My guess, Monday, while I'm at work, they're gonna try to deliver again ... no one will be home since we'll be at work ... and maybe they'll actually leave a tag. Then I'll have to drive out to the damn hub and get the package myself.

You know, I pay too much for delivery for all of this hassle. Stupid jerks. *sigh*

Posted by Red Monkey at 7:54 PM | Comments (1) | Never Underestimate the Power of Human Stupidity | Stumble

February 8, 2007

The New Nigeria

I'm gonna be rich. Rich, I tell ya. And I'll remember all my poor li'l blogging buddies when I'm rich, really I will. Maybe I'll even start my own blogging host with all my millions of dollars.

See, I got this great email from a soldier in Iraq and you know what? He SCORED, man. Oh wow, did he ever. He got Saddam's money, man! And he's picked li'l ole ME to help him get it into the States. Wow. I'm flattered to be so trusted by this dude. It's amazing ... here ... lemme share the good news with you:

FROM: Sgt. John J. Guy

Dear Sir/Madam,

My name is John J. Guy I am an American soldier, I am serving in the military of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regimient,Patrols Tal Afar, in Iraq.

I am presently in Kuwait for the mean time. I apologized using this medium to reach you for a transaction/business of this magnitude. Please view this link to see my picture:
http://www4.army.mil/armyimages/armyimage.php?photo=9169 and
http://www4.army.mil/armyimages/armyimage.php?photo=7990.

We have in our possession the sum of US$25,000,000.00 (Twenty Five Million US Dollars), which belongs to Saddam Hussein. These funds have been moved and kept safe in a Security Company, please view this link for more details: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2988455.stm
Basically since we are working for the American Government, we cannot keep these funds, but we want to transfer and move the funds to you, so that you can keep it for us in your safe account or an offshore account.

I have the authority of my partners involved to propose that should you be willing to assist us in this transaction, your share of the sum will be 30% of the US$25 million, 60% for us and 10% will be kept aside for expenses and rest assure that this business is 100% safe on your part provided you treat it with utmost secrecy and confidentiality. Therefore, if you are interested, Please reply immediately via my private email address: megalot64@aim.com with your Full Name, Current Mailing Address and your
confidential Telephone and Fax numbers for easy communication.

Upon your response, I shall then provide you with more details that will help you understand the transaction. Please observe utmost confidentiality, and be rest assured that this business is risk free.

Respectfully submitted,
Sgt. John J. Guy

Oooops. I guess I should have read this more carefully before posting. I guess it's not going to be a risk free operation now, huh? AH WELL.

Posted by Red Monkey at 4:11 AM | Comments (2) | Never Underestimate the Power of Human Stupidity | Stumble

February 1, 2007

Up Yours Boston

I read a TON of sci-fi as a kid ... and I ran across a quote from Robert Heinlein ... he probably stole it from someone else "Never underestimate the power of human stupidity."

And I'm telling you now, the officials of Boston have proven that in a way I can't even begin to fathom. You see this funky little Commodore 64 era pixelated sprite on the left? He's a Mooninite from the show Aqua Teen Hunger Force. It's a silly little adult cartoon show. The Mooninites are going to invade earth.

So, the marketing gurus decided to build these little LED lightboards, power them with apparently 4 D cell batteries and place them near the billboards advertising their movie. You know, a little guerrilla marketing, spread some word of mouth.

Yeah, after they'd been up for about two weeks (and several of them stolen in that time), some Chicken Little in Boston decided they were OBVIOUSLY bombs.

Check out a closer look at one:

Okay ... maybe from a distance, you can't quite see anything except wires and batteries and LED bulbs. But you know what? It makes a silly little character outline. That would get me thinking that it was just silliness. But apparently some good citizen in Boston is really really really freaking paranoid. Cuz it got called in to the authorities. And they came out and blew the first one up. Cuz you know, the bomb squad apparently couldn't figure out that the freaking wires were powering the damn LEDs and nothing else. I don't see any C4 or plastique on these things. What the hell kind of bomb squad does Boston have that they can't trace the fricking wires and figure out it's a damn LIGHT just like it looks like?

Are we really that paranoid? I know I can't freaking live that way. Paranoid and scared all the time. Are you people so crazy nuts that you can't even use your brains anymore?

And what really slays me about this entire incident is in this CNN article.

Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis called it "unconscionable" that the marketing campaign was executed in a post 9/11 era. "It's a foolish prank on the part of Turner Broadcasting," he said. "In the environment nowadays ... we really have to look at the motivation of the company here and why this happened."

Really? Really? Look, if there were crazy wires everywhere ... bits of clay that might be explosives ... something that actually looked like a freaking bomb, I could perhaps understand it and agree that this might be "marketing run amok." But it looks freaking harmless!

Now, maybe a common citizen who was scared of electronics might not know this. Shoot, my mother thought I was going to burn the house down when I spliced some speaker wire together as a teenager. But the specialists who showed up to deal with the "suspicious devices"???? COME ON!

Absolutely ridiculous.

I refuse to live my life terrified. Maybe that means I'll be dead because I pick up some LED lightboard that turns out to actually be a bomb. But my quality of life will be better for rejecting fear and living my life every day.

So ... to Boston, I have to agree with the T-shirts already showing up on eBay ... Up Yours.

Other auctions for the LED boards are here ... and here ... and I'm sure there will be more.

Posted by Red Monkey at 10:04 AM | Comments (2) | Never Underestimate the Power of Human Stupidity | Stumble

January 23, 2007

Adopting Discernment

I wrote the other day about our propensity toward fear and violence and how as often as not, our fear of that which is different causes us to react ... poorly. Then I was talking about the murder (or execution, really) of Hrant Dink. Today I'm talking of this fear we all have of discrimination.

We've learned our lessons sooooo well, it seems. If someone doesn't like us ... or worse, dares to disagree with us, we instantly cry out, DISCRIMINATION!

The fact of the matter is there is discrimination - an ugly choice made based on fear and surface level assumptions - and there is the discerning decision: a choice which is based on research and personal precedent and honest thoughtfulness.

A decision to choose not to hire someone because their skin is a different colour is discrimination. A decision that women should not be in combat positions because they will break a nail and want to go home is discrimination. (And I've heard that argument made on many occasions.) A decision to not hire a completely blind man for a job which requires sorting wires by their colour and their colour alone can be a discerning decision.

The problem, of course, is that we often don't know what went into someone else's decision making process.

And, of course, today most of us belong to multiple groups which we may feel face discrimination from others. Our religion, being part of a sorority or fraternity, having gone to a particular college, not having finished high school, being a certain colour of skin, a certain ethnicity, appearing male or female, being a freemason ... the lists go on and on.

It boils down to one simple thing: we fear what we don't know.

If we don't know what it is to be a mason, well, they're secretive ... if they're hiding something, they're bad, right?
If we are Armenians and don't know what it is to be a Turk and remember the early 1900s, then we fear further reprisals.
If we are a Turk who does not know what it is to be Armenian, we fear the accusations of genocide.
If we are good, conservative Catholics and don't know what it is to feel as though you've been born gay, then you fear that which is different and not understood.

Why do I revisit this today?

Because of Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor's threat to the English cabinet.

It seems that the U.K. has passed an Equality Act due to be enforced beginning in April of this year. That Act prohibits discrimination "in the provision of goods, facilities and services on the basis of sexual orientation."

Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor would rather see orphaned children turned over to foster care or orphanages than allow otherwise qualified folk who happen to also be gay, to adopt these children.

He has threatened to close seven agencies across the U.K. if they are not exempted from this law.

There's been a flurry of controversy over this, of course, with some screeching religious discrimination if an exception is not made for various faiths. However, the opinion of the ministers seems to be summed up quite neatly by Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer:

If we take the view as a society that we should not discriminate against people who are homosexual, you cannot give exclusions for people on the grounds that their religion or their race says we don't agree with that.

This is easily the crux of the matter. I know plenty of folks out there who would disagree, but let's look at a parallel case: polygamy and the early Mormon church in the U.S. Was not issuing an exemption to the early Mormons a discerning decision or discrimination? Probably some of both ... but what won the day was not necessarily the belief of one denomination or faith over another ... it was the general consensus of the public that polygamy was not "right" for their society.

If the U.K. has decided that discrimination of gays is not to be tolerated, why should one group or another be given a "get out of jail free" card?

There's a secondary, and to my mind, FAR more important issue going on than this base argument over gay rights.

And this issue is one that both sides scream in frustration at the other: "But what about the children?"

The Catholic Church's agencies are said to handle 4%, or about 200, of all adoptions a year. However they handle about a third of those children judged difficult to place.

While there are some WONDERFUL foster parents out there in the system in the U.K. and the U.S., the fact of the matter is that simply being in the foster care system is highly traumatic for the children. How can they help but think that they are unwanted? How can they help but think prospective parents are "shopping" for the perfect child? How can they help but think if they would do something differently, maybe their foster parents would turn into their adoptive parents?

How can they feel like anything more than some inconvenient luggage shifted around from place to place?

Not every child's situation is as grim as all that, and thank goodness that the Baudelaire children do not really have a commonly true story. But that does not negate the serious damage done to many of these children on a daily basis.

If the only prospective parents are perfectly suitable in every way except they happen to be black and the child white, should that adoption be blocked?

I say no.

There may be issues as the child grows up. It might not be "The Ideal Situation." The kid might be teased, bad things might happen.

But I will tell you now, a child with parents who love that kid, who care for that kid, and who will talk with that kid about all the issues that will arise ... that child is in a far, far better place than the child in the foster care system.

And I make the same claim about gay couples adopting children as well. I'm not going to argue "The Ideal Situation," I'm going to argue for reality. Get the kids out of the system and into loving homes. If the only thing keeping someone from adoption is sexual orientation, then we do the children a terrible disservice.

I know that I would have left my "comfortable" existence in the 'burbs in a heartbeat for a family who truly loved me, who knew me, who listened to me, who cared for me even had they lived in the middle of the worst tenement in the worst inner city. I wouldn't have cared what the colour of their skin was ... what religion they followed ... whether they were straight or gay. All I wanted was to be loved unconditionally.

Anything else can be worked out together, as a family.

.

.

A Note To Foster Parents: Most of you do an amazing and stunning job. I do not write this to shame you at all - being a foster parent is, as far as I'm concerned, a higher calling. It is the system which is in use and the fact that there are not enough caring parents to go around for each child which I believe causes the damage.

Posted by Red Monkey at 11:17 AM | Comments (5) | Never Underestimate the Power of Human Stupidity | Stumble

January 4, 2007

WOOHOO

And for a nice analysis, check out Mark Schlabach My favourite quote, which really sums it all up neatly:

The Fighting Irish will end the postseason losing streak that dates back to 1994 because next season they'll be playing in some second-tier bowl game in a non-descript place like Shreveport, La., which is where they should have been playing during much of the last two decades.

Against LSU, Notre Dame once again proved it doesn't deserve to play in BCS bowl games, which have become its birthright because of the school's national stature and ability to draw high TV ratings.

And that sums up Notre Dame in a nutshell. Not every student or administrator has the world's biggest ego or sense of entitlement, but the majority of the school does. There's a pervading air of "We're Notre Dame, we deserve the best." And when you ask why, the reply is simply, "We Are ND."

I feel for Brady Quinn, however. He's a really good, smart kid who deserves a great deal of credit for his smarts and hard work. It's a pity that can't be said for more people. I hope that Quinn gets the early NFL draft pick that he deserves and goes to the team he's hoping for.

Posted by Red Monkey at 4:41 AM | Comments (3) | Never Underestimate the Power of Human Stupidity | TrackBack | Stumble