Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
I am little overwhelmed at the moment.
Can I just take the day off from anything that has a major decision involved? Can I just take the day off from responsibility?
Anyone have any suggestions for getting away from it all?
Photo by Johannes Plenio on Pexels.com
Can someone just hold on a minute?
Why do we need to have shorter days already? I am not done with summer and the ever encroaching of darkness is pissing me off. I got stuff to do and the darkness is in the way.
Season change blah blah blah…dark at 4:00pm. WTH?
Longer days. You know, the ones where it gets dark like at 9:30pm. I like those. Let’s just do that all the time and call it good!
Photo by Markus Spiske temporausch.com on Pexels.com
OK, I know this is cliche. I know this is a generalization. I know this has been my experience in EVERY car purchase I have ever made, so I am pretty sure others have it as well.
It is universally known that car salesmen are the worst! I am sure every comedian has probably covered this topic so I am not exploring any new ground here, but I am gonna throw in my two cents.
They perch themselves up near the front entrance of the dealership, waiting and watching for any movement on the lot. They respond to email inquiries and bang out phone calls to people who have shown even the remotest interest in one of their cars. When a customer finds it’s way onto the property they flap their wings and decide who gets to approach the potential meal.
They leave the perch and saunter over near the customer trying not to look too eager. They circle, make small talk, and assess the situation. They wait for the customer to show signs of weakness or excitement about a vehicle.
Then they swoop in and land near their prey. As you fight to maintain the upper hand, they wait you out until you finally give in. You offer, they counter. You offer again, they counter again. Then, when you appear weak, another one swoops in to add more pressure. More offers, more pressure. You’re gasping, breathing hard and trying to hang on to the little life you have left, but there are now two vultures waiting, waiting to see last breaths of hesitation escape from your lungs as you agree to the purchase.
Now they feast! There is a flurry of feathers and papers and the next thing you know you are standing in your driveway with keys to a new car and buyers remorse.
Good luck out there!
Nothing reminds you of this fact more than when you begin your new car search. The process is the same on every single lot. Sure, the names of the dealerships change as you shop around and look for the best deal, but the process is the same. The behavior is the same. It is so predictable.
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Everyone has skeletons. This is a fact.
No one is perfect. We all have things in our past that we likely regret. We all have things in our past we would rather not have others know about. We all have things in our past that we’re embarrassed about. We all have things in our past we would probably like to take back or change.
The expectation that those who are in the public life, whether in government service or celebrity, be perfect and have no skeletons in their past is absurd. This is an impossible standard and one that no one can meet. Quite frankly, we, the American public, should be ashamed of ourselves for expecting this standard and for mistakenly trying to create it. Not all skeletons can be ignored and some most definitely shouldn’t be; however, there is also a limit to what should be considered when determining the true character of a person. Time and behavior have to be considered. Character isn’t built in a day, for good reason.
If you have ever considered a public life, or even if you haven’t considered it but some how end up with one, you better keep your head down. “They” are coming for you! It doesn’t matter who you are, what you’ve done, how long ago it was, or even what side you’re on. “They” are gonna find you and get you. It doesn’t take evidence. It doesn’t take witnesses. It doesn’t take corroboration. It just takes accusations and allegations. No proof needed. It doesn’t matter if you’re innocent or not, maybe the skeleton doesn’t even exist. No matter. “They” are gonna get you!
Our Founders are rolling over in their graves. None of them were perfect, but at least they understood that about others nor did they expect it.
If you are currently in a place of power, in the government, a celebrity (major or minor), or just a regular person…you should just stop doing whatever you’re doing and resign. Go live in a hole and interact with no one, because eventually your skeletons will come out of the closet and no one is exempt from being haunted by them.
Competition is rough these days! Retail stores, brick & mortar vs. online, are in a battle to get your dollars because there are so many choices out there. Most stores, in order to overcome the competition, will do just about anything to get your business once you’re in the store, so many of them will price match identical goods found at other stores just so they can capture your money before you walk out the door.
Yesterday was the strangest experience I have had as a consumer in quite a while.
My daughter wanted to buy “Grand Theft Auto V” and she was going to just buy it online from the Microsoft store as a digital download for $29.99. I said she should check around first to see if she can get a better price since it has been out for a while. So she did. As it turns out, there were several stores who had it on sale – Walmart and Game Stop, just to name a couple.
So, we jumped in the car and headed out to Walmart. We located the game in their electronics section in two place, neither of which indicated the online price as seen above. One was priced at $29.98 and the other one was priced at $59.98. These are the same game, mind you…
We asked for some help, showed the employee the price on the phone, he looked in the locked case and said something to the effect of “Well, we just updated prices so that is a bit of a mystery.” He pulled out both items at different prices and we went to do a price check. Both came up as marked. Wait, what?!? So, I asked if we could get the price as indicated online and he looked at my phone again, scrolled through the listing and said, “It must be an online only special.”
I was like, “It doesn’t say that anywhere. If it were online only, it would say that wouldn’t it?”
His response was, “It usually does.”
So, again, I asked if they would honor online price.
He said, “I don’t have the authority to do that but if you want to order it online then you could pick it up at the front of the store.” REALLY???? You’re gonna go there?
I asked for a manager. He said he called one. We waited for 15 minutes and still no manager. I asked if one was coming. He said they should be but they have to do “rounds” before they can get there.
I called Game Stop, verified they had the game in stock, left Walmart, and she spent her money there instead. No hassle.
When the physical store can’t (any employee should have this ability) to match it’s own online store price, you have a problem.
Walmart versus Walmart.com – both losers in my book!
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
What’s with water anyway?
Why is it so tasteless? Yes, I know that is a generalization and all water has a little something (chemicals/minerals/etc) that give it a “taste,” but it isn’t really a taste at the same time.
Drink more water they say…
OK, can you make it taste better without me going through the effort of adding something too it? It is just too much work. How about it just come out of the tap or, better yet, the dispenser in the fridge with some flavor?
Damn, I should patent this idea immediately! Soda machines let you choose the flavor of soda (who knew there were 435 *exaggeration* different flavors of Coke?), so why can’t my fridge do the same thing (some on Samsung, innovate that! I want credit though)? I press a button and the water that fills my bottle has a hint of lemon or a hint of lime or a hint of blackberry or a hint of mint (ewww) or a hint of fruit punch or whatever you think would be nice.
Make it happen people!
Otherwise, plain water is boring and I don’t want to drink it. But I do, reluctantly and begrudgingly.
Photo by David McBee on Pexels.com
Electric cars.
I think they would be more prevalent if people weren’t so worried about distance it could travel and charging it. I think those two things are sort of intertwined.
I guess I have always wondered why you have to plug the thing in in the first place. Why? If there is technology out there that will make high rise windows into charging panels, why can’t that be incorporated into automobiles? Or if Tesla can make solar roofing tiles and turn the whole rooftop into something that charges your home, why can’t it make the hood (or roof) of your car out of the same material?
I know, it takes a lot of time to recharge and I know (I asked this once of a smarter friend) that it would take a huge amount of charging to make a car work from such limited charging capability. He asked, “Would the cost be worth it?” My answer was that I didn’t know because apparently no one has tried, isn’t some charge better than no charge, and eventually cost would come down because that is what happens with tech as it improves.
Here’s the thing, most people’s cars spend most of the day sitting around, either in the driveway or in a parking lot somewhere. Why can’t it be recharging at the same time without having to be plugged in?
Things that make you go, hmmmmm.
Photo by Lorenzo Cafaro on Pexels.com
I am not totally sure what that means, but I do know it means whatever I was trying to do on the internet isn’t working, and it is frustrating as hell.
“Page not found.”
“We’ve encountered a problem. Try again.”
“HTTP server not found.”
It all means that whatever is trying to be done ain’t working and everything comes to a grinding halt.
Ugh, tech problems are the worst!
Anyone else have a “favorite” that short circuits their day?
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Anyone else find other people’s kids annoying?
Not that my kids were perfect by any means, but man I really dislike being around other people’s kids. I don’t really know why. Maybe I am just getting old.
I mean, yeah, I am old. Other people’s kids are loud, obnoxious, messy, whiny, and ill-mannered. They are picky food eaters, when they eat. They always want “play” with you and can’t play Wait, maybe it’s their parents I dislike. I mean, they little attention to their kids because they are focused on their phones, they yell as their kids when they don’t listen but don’t do anything to correct the behavior (“let’s talk about it” and “timeout”?). They seemingly expect other adults in the room to parent their kids for them, but they when you do they are offended that you did.
All I can do is shake my head.
#SMH
Photo by Tinyography on Pexels.com
I wanted to try to avoid this, but unfortunately it has come to this. There are those who promise big things and make it happen, and then there are those who just promise.
There is a well known blogger out there who has a rather large following, about 120,000+ people. He writes about how he can help you grow your blog and the information he puts out seems like good stuff. He has multiple blogs and he puts out pretty much the same stuff on each of them. He even offers services to boost your blog traffic or with design, content, etc. It appeared to be legit, so I followed him, as I am sure lots of others have done too.
Perhaps the large numbers he boasts are just from following everyone himself. Sure, some of those numbers are generated from his content, but my thinking is there are a lot of people out there who play the “follow for follow” game instead of looking for actual good content.
Anyway, other than producing some content about how to blog, he also blasts his followers with requests for money. Obviously, the services he supposedly offers is to generate money for himself, but he also just plain out begs for money – for rent to avoid eviction, for a new laptop, to fix his dental problems, and most recently to buy a domain and start a new project. (That is all since the beginning of THIS year) You all know who I am talking about, right? I probably don’t need to name names here…but if you have any doubt, clicking one of the links will solve that mystery.
So, with some reluctance, I decided to take a chance and purchase one of those services that he was offering on one of his “specials.” The service that interested me was the “One-on-One”, a chance to have him do an in depth review of my blog and then meet with me via Skype and discuss his findings and make suggestions about how to improve it. So I purchased it on July 19th. Why not, this guy apparently knows a thing or two, right?
So far, I haven’t received anything for my purchase other than an excuse (see below) and there has been no communication after that.
Over the last two months, I have tried to contacted him via the TWO different email addresses he had listed and I have also tried via comment on his posts (which are moderated, of course, so I know he has seen them). All to no avail. Silence. He is just plain ignoring me and took my money, which in my book usually makes him a thief.
Anyone else had this experience with him? I am guessing I am not alone in this…
I recommend that you stay away if you have been considering his services.
Piss and Moan 